Reborn My Way
by evangleline
Summary: What happens when a girl from our world dies before her time and is given another chance at life but not as a human. A background she asked for and a background she got. She wanted to save Damon and Elijah from their constant suffering. Be careful what you wish. With Amelia Lucinda Maxwell being born into the Vampire Diaries fate is being rewritten.
1. Chapter 1: Death and Rebirth

I reopened Netflix on my phone to watch Vampire Diaries from the beginning yet again as I sat on the train that would be taking my back home to NYC from my sister's place in Georgia. I still couldn't believe that Damon had ended up with Elena of all people and that Elijah had ended up falling in love with his brother's baby mama Haley. It seemed like they were always a cosmic joke when it came to love. Damon ended up with the woman who couldn't make up her mind for seasons and was consistently putting him down and trying to change who he was at the most basic of levels even after he saved her time and again without so much as a thank you. Elijah just seemed to have the worst luck in love. If it wasn't a doppelgänger whore screwing him around, his family was killing them off. If they weren't killed by one of his siblings they were plotting against him. And if they weren't plotting against him apparently they had screwed his brother or enemy if not both. While not happy with him ending up with Haley it was better then nothing except then she marries Jackson but of course she has to sleep with him one last time. _Seriously? I mean __come on!_ It was ridiculous how he was screwed over every. fracking. time.

****Everyone please exit rail 081 a transfer has been arranged due to maintenance issues. Please exit in a calm fashion. Your trip will continue on line 459. Those who have checked luggage will have it transferred without cost. Thank you and have a nice day.****

Crap. I paused it before the episode could even start. I grabbed my purse happy I had spent the extra money and wouldn't have to carry my luggage around the station. I decided to take a short cut when I saw how many people there were and walked between the columns so I would be able to get around them and find a decent section I could hopefully claim for myself. I was going to rejoin the crowd to go up the stairs when I was grabbed. He turned me back around and shoved.

_Oh God._ I tried to catch my breath as I felt my body to make sure everything was in place when I noticed the long white chiffon dress I was in and quickly got up. The sky was dark but there was enough light that I could see the path in front of me. It was then I heard my name being called from just past the ridge.

I saw her sitting there on a rock cliff. Without ever turning back to face me she spoke in the most beautiful voice I had ever heard in my life.

****You are here far to early my sweet Amelia.****

"I'm really dead, aren't I? That man he pushed me in front of that train." Tears gathered in my eyes. "Why did he do that?"

****He believed you were the woman responsible for the death of his son as the path you took is the one she takes everyday at the exact same time you did only she was just a few yards away when he acted. Had your train not needed that transfer you would have gone on to live your life meeting me once you were an old woman at the ripe age of 97. You should have died peacefully without fear surrounded by your family.****

"Can't I still have that? I mean you said I was here early can't you just send me back? Make it so the train missed or he didn't throw me hard enough or something? Please! I'm only 19. I don't want to be dead. For God's sake, I'm still a virgin. I died a virgin!" She chuckled at me a bit then.

****My dear girl, even if I could send you back there is no where to send your soul. Your body was destroyed upon impact. However, there is a body you could inhabit in another world. There is a babe whose soul never latched upon her body and returned to the Other. As such she was never born. In truth, because of this her mother miscarried before ever noticing the signs.****

What do you mean, another world?

****I believe you shall quite enjoy this. This world is The Vampire Diaries universe. Though admittedly there are somethings that your series missed. For instance the fact that most supernatural beings have a mate or mates should their soul be great enough to maintain more then a single connection. Though, the knowledge of such is mostly forgotten since the extinction of my creation. Now, there are only fantasies and stories told of soulmates.****

"Could I really live again? In the Vampire Diaries?"

****Yes. I shall even gift you as one of my creation under the condition that you create more. The nature witches have left most of my sister's gift of magic untapped or corrupted it with their sacrifices and the vileness of their desires. I ask that in return for your new life you choose carefully upon those you believe deserve another chance. However you will be incapable of telling anyone of the existence of any alternate universe or of my bringing you to this one. You can however work around this simply saying you hold minor psychic abilities in which I shall gift you that will occasionally provide you with visions of future events though this will not be fully controlled until you have fully matured as my creation. And with this magic that will be yours alone, unable to be stolen or latched onto by others. ****

"Are those the only conditions? C- Can I change things?"

****Yes. In fact I even encourage it. Let's just say not even I am fond of ******_**Delena**_****** or ******_**Haylijah**_******. Now is there anything you would like to put in for your own background or should I create what I believe shall work best, dear?****

"A founding family, preferably the Gilbert's since that should let me be close enough to make changes without too many questions coming up."

****That could certainly work perhaps the Gilbert brothers' younger half sister from their father's second marriage. Of course, as your mother is the last of another founding family she would keep her name and you would inherit it as her only child to ensure the name continues on. You will also be keeping your knowledge of your new world however I must remove the personal details of your first life so as not to risk your soul fracturing in an effort to return to it's first world. I have a few more ideas but we are running out of time. After all, The Grim Reaper's job is never done. Good luck, Amelia.****


	2. Chapter 2: Amelia Lucinda Maxwell

Birth Name: Amelia Lucinda Maxwell

D.O.B: June 20, 1988 (21 at start of canon)

Face Claims: Mackenzie Foy as child, Lilly Collins as teen, Megan Fox as adult

Coloring: Tanned skin, brunette, green/grey eyes

Species: Temporarily Human. Angel of Death/Grim Reaper's creation?

Mate(s): ?

Family:

Gilbert's- Jeremiah Gilbert and Marianne Elaine Maxwell-Gilbert (parents) Grayson and John Gilbert (half-brothers)(Grayson raised her after death of parents), Miranda and Jenna Sommers (sister-in-laws) (bff in Jenna's case)Elena and Jeremy Gilbert (niece and nephew)

Maxwell/Donovan's- Peter Maxwell (disowned through grandfather, distant cousins once removed/ abandoned Donovan family only to come back to claim Maxwell estate but left after failing), Victoria Prudence "Vicki" and Matthew Gregory "Matty" Donovan (disowned through great-grandfather, distant cousins twice removed)

****Now onto the Story****

I didn't regain my memories until after I was 2. It meant I was on solid food, potty trained, could walk and talk. Ok I could mostly walk and talk I was still getting used to my new body after all but the muscle memory was already there. I had a lisp but fortunately it helped people look at me as nothing more than a cute toddler that was probably a little too smart. I had decided after being placed in a play pin with a bunch of snot nosed babies that had decided on making me there teddy bear and drooling on me that there was no way in the seven levels of Hell was I going to hide my intelligence. Being stuck with a bunch of toddlers drooling, trying to eat my hair, picking their nose, and having accidents day after day would drive me insane despite the wonderful goodness that was naptime._ God, I forgot how much I loved naptime as a little girl._

As I grew I started noticing how flowers seemed to bloom more beautifully and last longer then would be normal wherever I was. Elena had been born days after my 4th birthday and Jeremy when I was 6. Time seemed to be passing quickly. It was when I was 9 that Grayson had taken me with him to Whitmore College as he had a 'meeting' with a few colleagues. Images flashed in my head on the drive.

_Augustine. A door and keypad. Numbers. Enzo. Only. Chance. to. Save. _

I knew what I had to do then and quickly made my way to him the moment I knew I wasn't being watched at the on-campus staff daycare he had dropped me off at. I knew I only had 10 minutes at best before someone noticed I was gone. I made my way quickly over not noticing until I was already at the door that somehow I had made it to the other building using super-speed. I shook my head knowing this wasn't the time to be questioning my new ability and entered the numbers I'd seen in my vision before making my way down. It seemed as though this meeting had to do with upgrading their security systems further as there were no cameras installed within the facility yet. Good thing for me. They had left Enzo strapped to a surgical table with an IV slowly transferring vervain into him to keep him weak. He looked my way hearing my approach before turning back to look at the ceiling again.

"These fools. Who brings a child into a vampire experiment?" he mumbled to himself.

"No one brought me here. I let myself in." His head snapped to face me despite his clear weakness.

"How did you hear that?"

"I don't really know. It's new. They'll be back soon, a few minutes really so we kinda have to hurry this up." I said walking to him

"Hurry what up?" He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Getting you out of here. Duh! I know you're kinda full of vervain right now but that's no excuse for being slow." My eyes widened when I realized I just insulted him. "Please don't make me a snack for saying that. I don't taste good, I swear! Even if I do eat too much chocolate and smell like strawberries. Wait! NO! That sounds yummy! I'm not yummy! Really!"

He laughs. "Don't worry little dove. They fed me before you arrived and I'm well accustomed to their rationings by now." He gave a grimace as I finished unstrapping him and removed the IV when I was suddenly hit with another vision. This one being more knowledge then anything else, though. I walked over to a small steel desk fridge and removed then clean blood bags they had there and passed them to him. He looked at them then me and back again before feeding.

"Time to go" I said as he finished.

"Is there anything I can do in return for you saving me?"

"I didn't do this to get something. I did it because it was the right thing to do. " I looked up at him as we passed through the exit.

"There must be something, little dove." He looked down at me and I knew he wouldn't let this go. He would follow me if I couldn't give him an answer and with Grayson there I couldn't take that chance.

"A friend. Someone I can talk to about all this supernatural stuff. I can't talk about it with my brothers. They hate vampires, I mean look at what Gray did to you! I get that he just wants to help people but it's wrong. Him and John don't even look at you as a person. If they knew I was different, that I wasn't completely human or whatever I am I... I don't know." I knew that he wanted to ask about my brothers but he didn't and I sure wasn't. "I need to get back before anyone realizes I'm gone. Will you be ok here?" I asked him once we were at the edge of the campus that backed onto the woods after keeping to the shade the best we could. He nodded and smiled at me then.

"It's been a long time since I breathed in the fresh air. I have a feeling there is much for me to catch up on. A friend though, hmm? I think I could use one too."


	3. Ch 3: Childhood, Friends & Making Moves

Growing up was strange when you were already mentally an adult. I was 15 when I graduated from Mystic Falls High School. My graduation should have happened years ago but my parents had died in a plane crash coming back from their romantic week long getaway. My mother had left there entirety of the Maxwell estate to me aside from a few monetary contributions to the betterment of Mystic Falls and a few charities.

Grayson and Miranda took over raising me and somehow she managed to convince Gray not to let me take the last few test I need and put me in middle school. Apparently, I needed to learn how to socialize with people my own age and not just adults. I must have lost so many IQ points from the strain of holding a conversation with the empty headed boy talk those girls managed. Honestly, what the hell does an 11 year old know about love and dating? Jesus, I swear it starts younger and younger with every generation. At least Jenna was entertaining with hers. She never treated me as a child and in return I never treated her as Miranda Sommers little sister but as her own person not just an extension as so many others did.

As much as I tried, Elena and I just couldn't get along. Don't get me wrong little Elena was adorable but she was also spoiled as hell. Miranda practically gave her everything. Jeremy though had captured my heart with that smile and the adorableness that was him following me around grabbing onto my legs in a hug. He was definitely my favorite Gilbert and I had no problem with it being known. I had taken Elena's place as the town sweetheart and admittedly it was kind of weird. Bonnie Bennet had remained Elena's die-hard friend/slave (honestly, slavery may have ended but apparently no one told Bonnie that). So keeping her witchy hands away from Jeremy was a must. I had managed to bring Caroline well within my court. Sure she needed some toning down in the first few seasons but she had grown as a character and by the end I loved her. She made for an adorable little minion, I mean friend. If I had my way, she would definitely be ending up with Klaus this time around and remaining human or possibly changed into whatever I was only after she provided a cute godchild or two first though. _Could you just imagine the cuteness of the kids those two would make_.

Enzo had checked in with me regularly. He was quickly catching up with the world. I had appropriated some funds from my inheritance to help him along. He was well on his way to becoming a man that could live in the 21st century. What I hadn't known was that when I had helped him escape someone had been watching as I led him to the woods. I didn't know about the fact I'd been caught for weeks. Until, one day when our family had gone to the park for a picnic. I felt it then. Eyes were watching us from the trees. It was only moments later when I moved towards the swings on the far side of the park that I realized that it wasn't my family that was being watched, it was me. Whoever it was had followed me and they'd moved closer. I felt the eyes on me when they moved to the swing.

"What do you want?"

"Five weeks ago at Whitmore College you led a vampire into the woods. Why?" My head snapped towards him.

"Y-you... How? Are you part of Augustine?" I swallowed nervously.

"What's Augustine?" Now I was suprised.

"They capture vampires. Experiment on them. If you're not one of them then why are you watching me? How do you know about vampires?"

"Nine years ago, my girlfriend she saw this boy just a little younger then us get taken by one. She fed on him right in front of vampire she came after her then. It was just a game to her. Killed her too." He told me lost in his memories. I could tell most of it was being filtered at least somewhat though.

"E- He isn't like that. He wouldn't hurt me. He could have but he didn't."

"Why do you think didn't killed him when he came into town?" I looked at him again stopping my swinging and jumping down only for him to follow.

"Is that the only reason you've been watching me?"

"No. You-" he took breath. "You remind me of her, the way you look. Just younger, a lot younger."

"I'm not though." I looked back at my family then. Grayson is looking for me. Before I walked away from him I said just one more thing. "I'm just Amelia."

"And she was just Amina." He chuckled. "I'm Jackson."

****~Grayson's POV~****

That man may have thought I didn't notice him but I had. I saw how he was there always at the farthest point watching my us. Until I saw how his eyes stayed on Amelia as if she was an oasis in the middle of a desert and he was a man dying of thirst. It was when we went on one of Miranda's family picnics though that he made his move towards her. Slowly walking out from the shade of the forest trees when she walked to the swings on the far side of the park. The only thing that stopped me from killing him then was the look he had. It wasn't a look of a predator but a man who had lost his whole world and suddenly had the universe laid before him. He was walking in the sun so I knew he wasn't a vampire at least. I was thankful for that small mercy.

I watched as he spoke to her never once letting them out of the corner of my sight for a second. When she walked back to us I was relieved. "Who was that you were talking to, Ames?" She looked at me in that way that just told me she was thinking of her answer carefully but quickly. _She was always just a little too smart for her own good._

"Jack. He's nice, I guess." She shrugged saying it as if it was nothing unusual before walking to Miranda who was already packing up our things in the car. _Jacks, huh?_ I walked over to Miranda.

"Take the kids for ice-cream without me, hun. I just got a call. Have to head into the office. I think I'll make them wait and take the scenic route." I gave her a smile as she bought the lie and drove off before hunting Jacks down. I found him sitting at the bar in the Mystic Grill. I signaled the manager to slip the vervain into his drink. He didn't react other than to scrunch up his nose at the taste. "Think you and I should have a little talk, don't you?" I said my hand on his shoulder. He followed without question obviously knowing he was caught. "What do you want with my sister?"

"Nothing. Nice job having the bartender slip vervain into my drink to see if I was a vamp though."

"How do you know about vampires and why are you following her? " I was surprised but i refused to let it show on my face. I had my little sister to think of.

"How about I tell you a little story that will answer both your questions."


	4. Chapter 4: Tragedy of the Past

1987

_I finally found it, the perfect ring for her. It had cost more than I had planned on spending but she was worth it and so much more. Amina was the love of my life. There would never be anyone else after her. She was just it. We were living in this 2 bedroom apartment in Boston. I had everything planned out. I was going to recreate our first date. We'd go to Gianni's for dinner before going to the drive-in since they were showing the Princess Bride and she loved the book. Couldn't stop talking about it our first date_. I laughed. _After that we'd go walk on the pier and I'd ask her to marry me. I never got the chance._

_She came home rambling about how she saw this guy a little younger than us get killed by a vampire, of all things. Told me how the tall woman with red hair and blue eyes told her to stand there and keep quiet and how she did. I thought she just saw a mugging gone wrong or something and couldn't deal with the fact that she hadn't helped. She was like that you know. Always wanting to help people and make the world a better place. She even signed for the Peace Corps. I was wrong though. If I had just listened to her then. She told me that woman, that monster had threatened her. That if she said anything she'd come for her but I didn't listen. I convinced her it was all in her head and that she imagined that there was a vampire because she was in shock. She gave in and reported to the cops that she witnessed a mugging turned murder._

_Everything was fine for a few days and then I came home from work late. I took my time closing that night. I remember she made my favorite. It was set on the table. I called for her but she didn't answer. Just the memory of it and I can feel that fear gripping me again. I went to our room but when I opened the door._

_She was laying there on the floor bleeding out. It looked like an animal had ripped the side of her throat out before cutting into her side to carve her flesh with "Silence is Golden". That bitch wrote that "She was warned" in her blood! My beautiful Amina just laying there, gone. The neighbors heard my screams for help and my begging her to wake up. Bu- But she didn't._

I handed him the photo from my pocket. I carried it everywhere.

I didn't bother to look at him too caught up in the nightmare that had stole the love of my life. I knew what he would see in that photo. How could he not? After all, it was an older version of his little sister. A little sister he saw everyday and so would have no problem seeing what he did.

"The vampire did you ever"

"No. I hunted her for years but nothing. Like she just disappeared." I knew I was a broken man. I knew Amelia wasn't my Amina. How could she be? She was a child born a year after Amina's murder. A part of me, a part I was trying my best to ignore felt like I was looking right at her when I looked at her though.


	5. Chapter 5: My Life as Time Passes

I had been accepted into the business program at NYU with a full scholarship and had jumped at the chance with Jenna and Caroline's full support and encouragement. Grayson hadn't been happy about it but had agreed under the condition that I call regularly and for a favor. I had taken the deal only to regret it moments later when Miranda asked me to compete in the Miss Mystic Falls Pageant. Grayson had given me that look with an innocent smile that just told me he was definitely the one who had put her up to this. Fortunately, I wouldn't be around for the next few years around those time because of school but promised I would once I came back after graduation. Of course I had heard Jeremy laughing away like a damn hyena once I agreed which lead to an epic round of tickles and say Auntie.

I had chosen to get an apartment and roommate. I just hadn't expected the prospects for roommates to suck so badly until the one that didn't. Alexi Vikrov, a foreign student from Russia. Alexi was here as a pre-med student. Grayson would probably have a heart attack when he found out Alexi wasn't a girl but honestly it wasn't my fault he just assumed it because of his name. He was great fun though and I was honestly wondering if I couldn't just set him up with Jeremy a few years down the line besides my parents had a larger age gap then they do. I had always been so sure Jeremy was just hiding in the closet when I watched the show. Besides he hadn't had a single good relationship with the opposite sex so it was definitely time he tried something new. Alexi would be perfect plus it meant my new g.b.f.f. would be staying in the states along with Jeremy getting the love he so rightfully deserves after putting up with Elena's crap. _Why does he have to be so young right now? _

We had been out on the town when I bumped into a man, spilling his coffee on his suit. "Shit! I'm so sorry! Let me get you another one, please?" I looked up into his face after wiping at the coffee stains. _Elijah Mikaelson_. "Wowza"

"Excuse me?" He said smirking down at me causing the blood to rush to my face.

"I can't believe I just said that out loud. How about that coffee and then we can pretend this never happened."

"I don't see why we would have to do that. It's not everyday a beautiful young woman spills my coffee on me and then offers to buy me a new one." _Dear God that smirk is infuriating_.

****Three Years Later****

Pushing myself to take those Winter sessions had paid off. I was graduating a year early with a dual BA in Business and Bioengineering. Elijah had asked me to move in with him and I said yes. We had already painted and picked out our furniture.

We were happy and things were going great. I guess that's why something had to happen. I had woken up beside Elijah on my 18th birthday only I woke up with something extra growing out from my back. And as I looked in the mirror I saw how I had changed. My eyes. The wings. Then came the visions and with them knowledge. The reaper's creation were freaking succubus. My species was powerful and we would not be destroyed. My species, those I changed would thrive in this world. I'd make sure of it.

****A/N: Vision was the Grim Reaper explaining what she is and her abilities.****

****Succubus****

Energy/Food Source

Sexual auras and body fluids released by sexual partner(s)

-Sexual acts, cravings, or fantasies provide a person with a sexual aura.

-Fluids released by soulmate(s) will keep them full and satisfied for longer.

Life Span

Immortal.

-Immortality is shared with soulmate(s) that have completed their bond.

-Will continue to age until reaching peak of sexuality (Succubus maturity) usually occurring between early to late twenties.

Transformation

When powers are used the eyes turn violet, reflecting the galaxy.

Wings come in various colors depending upon the person's soul but always a single color.

-Only royal blood such as the queen/king succubus have white within their wings along with being multicolored.

-Those who are traitors to their king/queen will have their wing turn black as night whether it is at the moment of their first transformation or the one following the betrayal.

Abilities

Enhanced Agility

Super Speed

Superhuman Senses

Superhuman Strength

Dream Manipulation

Inhuman Beauty

Vocal Persuasion: similar to compulsion only it does not need eye contact however it must be spoken in a language understood by the target.

Body Manipulation: allows changes within hair, eye, and skin coloring as well as minor adjustments in body's shape.

Diamond Nails: nails are hard as diamonds and can grow into claws to be used as weapons.

Genderfluid: Allows the succubus/incubus to effectively become intersexed should they choose to be . This includes reproductive organs as well.

Shielded Mind: cannot be compelled or magicked into acting against their will

Flight: Wings with enough practice can be used to fly not only the succubus/incubus but passenger(s) as well as various speeds.

Razor Wings: Under threat wing feathers can become razorlike and can even be released similar to throwing knives.

Magic: Spells, Rituals, Enchantments, Blood, Divination Elemental, and Alchemy.

Soulmate(s) Bond: A single touch or passing glance is all that is need for a soulmate to be recognized. Something as simple as fingers touching as you pass another could spark the bond. This bond is unbreakable and cannot be manipulated or corrupted in any form once completed.

Bond Stage 1- Recognition through touch or meeting of eyes. This sparks a vision for both parties of what life could be like with the other should the bond be accepted and completed.

Bond Stage 2- Getting to know your soulmate(s). This is the last stage in which the bond can still be broken without consequence. It is also considered the most dangerous time for a succubus/incubus as the soulmate(s) have a 'grace period' of sorts where they can harm the succubus/incubus and they cannot inflict permanent harm to them without breaking the bond.

Bond Stage 3- A romantic relationship. At this stage neither succubus/incubus or their soulmate(s) can do harm to the other whether it be by omission or act. The soulmate(s) are no longer capable of betraying their mate in any form even under the influence of magic. It is at this stage that any enchantment, spell, or curse cast over either party would be broken with a true confession of love shared by both parties, after a following kiss.

Bond Stage 4- Consummation of the bond. The bond is completed and the mates cannot be torn apart. The succubus/incubus cannot be killed unless both their soulmate(s) and themselves have been killed by having their hearts ripped out and bodies burned, this also hold true to on the soulmate(s) part. Instead they will be held in a state of temporary death in the case of the soulmate(s )until their mate has healed them. In the case of the succubus/incubus they would remain temporarily dead until either their heart has been returned to their chest or has regrown which takes a 24 hour period and leaves them in a vulnerable and weakened state for the following week.


	6. Chapter 6: Return to Mystic Falls

I didn't know how to feel when I had looked into Elijah's eyes and seen what our future could be if we gave in. The surprise on his face alone from just seeing the wings stretching out of my back as the blood dripped was enough to make me freeze. He had shared the visions as well and explaining it had become far more complicated when he had vamped out on me before I could get a word out. It was only after he had calmed down that I managed to tell him that I had only been human temporarily. The Reaper had given me a backstory, one that was true in my new life. The Maxwell line, through my mother had been the last who carried the blood. It was only because my parents were soulmates that I existed._ In canon, they had never met so they never married therefore I didn't exist and my mother Marianne died shortly after miscarrying the baby of another man. She committed suicide unable to face life with the man who had abused her for years before causing the death of her unborn child._ It was because my parents were soulmates that the blood reactivated within me, now on my 18th birthday. I told him that I knew he was a vampire before he had told me and I hadn't cared. He wasn't hurting me and mine, so why would I?

I told him of my visions of us together when I had met his eyes earlier and he admitted to the same. I told him of how the vision of that future together was how my kind recognized their soulmate(s), that it occurred at the first glance/touch following the change. He had asked question after question and I answered as best I could. He told me he couldn't stay with me. He said he loved me and I broke into a smile confessing the same, overjoyed he had accepted what I was. He said he couldn't be with me than, that he couldn't take the chance before leaving me with a peck on the lips. He had unknowingly put us within the 3rd stage of bonding before running away, leaving me with a pull to him and a pain that wouldn't heal.

****May 23, 2009****

Elena was worse then when I left. Her bratty-ness had only gotten worse while I was in NYC. Miranda having Elena as the only other girl at home had spoiled her rotten worse then even before, mostly forgetting Jeremy unless reminded. Jeremy had called, e-mailed, and skyped me everyday I was gone worried I'd forget about him too. It was impossible of course, with me having been mentally 19 when I came into consciousness and the near 19 years that followed, mentally I was just a couple years short of 40. I viewed him as a son and I would be damned if he ever believed I would abandon him. He had felt alone without me there and Miranda focusing solely on Elena while Grayson was working. I had called Caroline, Vicki, and Matt so that he wouldn't feel it as much along with having him come stay with me during New Years since he at least according to Miranda had to be home for Christmas since it was 'family time'. _Family time but you forget the boy you gave birth to in favor of the niece you adopted._

Vicki and Matt I had gotten closer to shortly before leaving for the city and kept in contact with ever since. Apparently, having any female figure to look up to and talk with other then her mother that didn't talk about how she would never go anywhere or look at her in pity was all she had needed to keep on the right path. She would be graduating in 2 weeks, before coming to work as my personal assistant as she went to school online. Her and Matt had moved into the Maxwell estate with me after I returned to Mystic Falls. I never understood how their mother could just up and leave never even checking up on them. She would be in for quite the surprise when she came back and found the apartment either up for rent or being rented by someone else. _Not like she had any say in it anyways considering she left two teenagers to pay for the damn bills._

Somehow, Elena still managed to find a way to skip family night so she could go off to a fucking party. She had left through the bathroom window. _Who even does that?_ I told Grayson and Miranda that I would go and get her and we'd be back before they knew it. No way, was I letting little Ms. Thing's shitty 'I'm 17 and a grown woman' attitude kill my brother. If the little girl wanted to be grown, I would give her grown.

She had already started walking to that strip of road with Damon when I parked on the outskirt of the woods the bonfire was held in.. I was quick to make my way to her then. Guess our little talk will have to wait a bit.

"-You want what everybody wants."

"What? A mysterious stranger who has all the answers." I heard.

"No, what you want is me not to humiliate and kick your self-absorbed spoiled ass, Elena!" both their heads snapped to me than. Damon seemed confused seeing me there but I kept my glare focused on Elena.

"Shit." She whispered beneath her breath "What are you even doing here, Amelia? I called mom and dad, they're coming to get me." She smirked. _Fuck! What could she say that would bring Grayson out here knowing I was already here getting her?_

"I'm sorry, Amelia is it?" I looked over at him wondering at the desperation in his voice then and suddenly a part of me wished I hadn't. The visions of a future for us flashing before my eyes.

Laying in front of a fireplace, laughing.

Damon making peace with Stefan.

Him watching as I walked down the stairs dressed to the nines.

Kissing in a bedroom

Sitting in a hospital bed smiling with a baby in my arms.

Damon playing with our baby's teddy bear, making him/her giggle.

He took a step back when it ended shock covering his face.

Before a smile took it's place.

"Am I missing something here? Why are you looking at her like that? Do you two know each other or something?" Elena fired off annoyed she no longer held his attention. A car's horn beeped as it drove up. "That's mom and dad." The car stopped in front of us and Grayson got out not paying any mind to Damon.

"Get in the car Elena, now." He looks over to me furious, as Elena sends me her 'I win' smile stumbling into the car as he faces me before getting in. _Is she seriously drunk right now?_ "You hit her?"

"What? No! I just found her."

"Are you calling her a liar, now too?" Miranda said from the car and I scoffed. _Of course, Elena must have called mommy dearest for a ride and told her I hit her once she mentioned I left to go after her._

"You know what, Miranda? Yes, I am. You have that girl so spoiled she thinks she can do and say whatever she wants without consequences! No, I didn't put my hands on her. I have far more self-control than to let her get to me like that, after all I've been dealing with her attitude for years. Grayson, this is just like when she lied about Allison Thomas after the girl broke her nose and Elena said it was for no reason. You drove that girl and her family out of Mystic Falls. And we both know it wasn't Elena telling the truth. You saw that video. You saw how her and Bonnie scared that girl, pushing her towards that staircase." He looked heartbroken remembering when Sheriff Forbes had come to the house with the security camera footage after he had threatened to take the to court and Miranda had ruined their reputation through the remaining founding families. We had been so lost in getting what we had to across to another that we forgot Damon's presence just behind me.

Grayson looked at Elena sitting there in the car and shook his head before looking up at the sky. "What do I do?"

"What daddy would have done. This can't go on, Gray. You know that. She's 16 now and you're not going to be here forever. If she tries something like this outside Mystic Falls what do you think is going to happen?"

"I know!" he screamed at me. "I know Amelia, I know. I just don't want to believe that this is how she turns out. Where did we go wrong?"

"Handle it, Grayson. I'm going to head to my car. It sound like it's gonna start storming. Wait for me by the bridge so I can follow you home?" He nodded lost in his thoughts before getting in and driving ahead.

"She threatened to push someone down the stairs?" I snapped back around remembering he was still here. _He didn't compel Elena to forget._ He had this look in his eye as if he was worried about something.

"You're still here." he smirked

"Am I that forgettable?"

"No! I mean it's just that wasn't really meant to be heard by anyone else."

"So how do you know uh..."

"Elena and she's my niece."_ Twice over._ "I should get going their waiting for me." I turned away from him but he grabbed my hand stopping me.

"I'm Damon. Damon Salvatore. You saw it to didn't you whatever that was."

"It was a vision of what could be."

"How? V- I can't have children. Who, what are you?"

"I'm Amelia Maxwell. I hope you stick around town Damon. I'd like to get to know you." I gave a small smile before leaving.

It was five minutes later that I saw Gray's car driving just ahead of me. _He should've been waiting for me parked by now with how long I had taken. _I was just a few yards behind them and was going to flash my hazard lights since the storm had picked up since I started driving when I saw Elena lean forward in the car and suddenly it lost control. The car skidded heading down bridge. I slammed on my breaks before quickly making my way out. _No. No. No. _Only it didn't matter as I watched their car fly off the Wickery Bridge.

"NOOOO!"

"Grayson! Miranda! Elena!"


	7. Chapter 7: Worst Family Night Ever

****May 23, 2009****

****~Jeremy's POV~****

Elena had bailed on family night. It was one night every month and she couldn't even be bothered. Dad was mad and mom was just talking about how she was disappointed she was with Aunt Jenna and that she was sure there had to be a reason she left. _Yeah, there's a reason mom. She's selfish and you just never noticed it. Always going on about how selfless she is when she helps you volunteer at the hospital but never hearing the things she mumbles about the patients' looks. Whatever_. I sat there waiting for Aunt Lia to come back with her. Hopefully, they'll let me sleepover at hers cause with this family night was officially over. Than Elena called and mom started yelling to Dad about how she didn't want Aunt Lia coming into her house again.

"You can't do that!" I yelled at her.

"Jeremy." She looked over at me and cupped my cheeks in her hands. _Yeah, Jeremy. I exist to Mom._ "I know you love her but she hurt your sister. She could hurt you too." I could see Aunt Jenna from the corner of me eye and knew she didn't believe the crap my mom was saying either by the way she was shaking her head in disbelief before she sat down and put her head in her hands.

"Aunt Lia wouldn't hurt Elena. That's bullshit! She's lying!"

"Jeremy!" Mom and Dad both yelled.

"Your sister wouldn't lie about something like that! Grayson, let's go!"

"Your room, Jeremy. We'll talk about this when we get back." He said but I knew the truth. When Elena got home, she'd do her best to manipulate everything so she'd come up on top of whatever story she came up with. Aunt Lia wouldn't even get a chance to get a word in with the way mom is rampaging, if she even came back with them. They left and it was just me and Aunt Jenna left.

"She's lying."

"I know." Was Aunt Jenna's response as I sat next to her and she wrapped her arms around me. An hour later, the phone rang. I watched Aunt Jenna got up. "Hello, Gilbert residence." Her face paled and tears filled her eyes as she listened to whoever was on the other line. "Oh, God."

****~Grayson's POV~****

"You never take me side! It's always Amelia this or Amelia that! I'm not like Amelia! And I never will be." Miranda looked at me with such loathing as if to say I had done this, that it was my fault our daughter was acting this way. "Besides she's just the goody good that never gives" She laughed.

"Elena!" Miranda turned around, scandalized. _As if you were a virgin when we got together._

"Are you drunk?" I looked back at her through the mirror to see that sarcastic smile on her face that I had come to hate the few times I had seen it.

"If I was, would I look so good doing this?" She dances in her seat, giggling. _Breathe In. Breathe Out. Calm._

I grip the steering wheel at what comes out of my wife's mouth next. "Elena, enough. Show some decency! I raised you to be better then some Donovan whore. God knows Amelia tries but the girl is a fool, if she thinks she can stop that Vicki Donovan from ending up like her mother and I'll be damned if you do."

"Miranda! Miranda!" she kept going despite my interruptions.

"No, Grayson. If she wants to make decisions like an adult. I will speak to her like one. And I hope you told your sister not to come back to my house. Putting her hands on my baby! What is wrong with that girl and you taking her side over our daughter's! What is wro- "

"Ours! Now she's ours when all I've heard is 'I', 'your' and 'my' since we left the house. Miranda, just months ago, she was threatening to push a girl down a flight of steps as a 'joke'. While actually shoving the girl towards them! And when she retaliated by fighting and breaking Elena's nose, she lied about what really happened! Can you honestly say that Elena is telling us the truth about Amelia hitting her because I looked ****my ****sister in the eye and I am telling you now. ****She. Did. Not. Lie.****" The look in Miranda's teary eyes told me she knew Elena was lying, she just couldn't believe it. She didn't want to, just like when Liz played the camera footage for us.

"Ugh! Stop fighting! Queen Bitch isn't even in the car and it's still all about _her_. What about ****ME****?" She leaned forward as we drove on the curved road towards the bridge and shoved at me, hitting my arm.

"ELENA!" We screamed just as the car hydroplaned before sending us off the bridge and into the water below.

"Miranda? Elena?" The water was quickly filling the car and as I looked over. "Miranda? Miranda!" Her eyes staring wide open at me, dull of any life. "Baby? No!" I cried, reaching out my hand to her, pushing the hair away from her face. Her neck was broken from the impact. I tried for my seatbelt and the door but neither would give.

"Ow. My head!" Her voice came from the back.

"Elena!" I turned towards her. "Can you undo your seatbelt?"

I watched as she tried. "No! What do we do? Daddy, I don't want to die!" She said as the water rose. "Take a deep breath!" I called before it covered our heads. _We're sinking to fast._

We kept pulling at the seat belts and doors but it was no use. I turned back to her and took her hand in mine. "It'll be ok." I worded to her, how could I do anything else she was my daughter, my niece, and regardless of her faults I loved her all the same.

"I love you" she worded back before her eyes as her hand slid out of mine.

It was only as I turned back to the door unable to face what was happening that I saw it. Two shapes moving down into the water. A man and woman both swimming down to us stopping first at the back door and then I saw her face in the window, _Violet. _"Grayson" she worded before looking behind me, her eyes instantly falling on Miranda behind me. And all went black.

****Moments Before, Wickery Bridge****

****~Amelia's POV~****

I ran, tears sliding down my face and kicking off my heels as I went before I dived in barely paying attention to the fact that someone did the same at the other end of the bridge. I swam down as quickly as I could to reach the sinking car that held 3 members of my family trapped inside. Another person swam up at my side and I gave no more than a glance _Stefan_ focusing on my family's safety. I reached the car and gripped onto the door handle to the back seat that held Elena, turning to Stefan and gesturing for him to take her as I moved to the front and smiled brokenly when I saw him looking at me. "Grayson" I worded before looking behind him where Miranda floated. His eyes shut and I knew I had to get him out before it was too late. I pulled the door free and grabbed him well aware of the eyes watching me before doing the same for Elena and following me up to the surface.


	8. Chapter 8: What Happened?

"Dr. Thompson, I'm fine. Now, stop touching me!" Amelia hissed at the ER doctor that had been leering since she came in with the ambulance, pushing his hand away as he again tried to convince her into an exam to be sure.

"Aunt Lia, you're ok!" Jeremy rushed to her Jenna following close behind.

"Have they told you anything about the crash? Where's Liz, shouldn't she be here asking questions? And, why are you so wet?" Jenna asked, confused.

"Liz already came so she's back at the bridge. We should sit down. Tell me what you know so far." Jenna explained that they had gotten a call from the station about them being in a car accident and were being rushed to the hospital. No one had told her anything else after that except that she needed to be here.

"I asked Grayson to wait for my by the bridge while I went back to my car since Elena had left the party. Wh-"

"Wait, back up. Elena, left the party? As in she walked off alone during a party in the middle of the woods where anything could happen?" Jeremy cut in annoyed and Amelia grabbed his hand in her own.

"When I caught up to them they had been on the curve and I don't know what happened. I was going to flash my headlights so Gray would know I was behind them but..." Amelia stopped, trying to make sense of it.

"What is it, Aunt Lia/Ames?" Jeremy squeezed at her hand.

She looked at him before looking back at Jenna. "I just...the car, it hydroplaned the rest of the way and went off the bridge. I dived in after them but I'm so sorry, Jenna. Miranda, she-"

"No." Jenna shook her head. "No, she can't-" she broke into sobs.

"Mom is gone?" I pulled him into my arms as he cried.

"What about Elena and Grayson?"

"Someone dived in after me. A boy about Elena's age, I'd never seen him before but apparently he's visiting his uncle from what he told Liz before he left." She took a breathe trying to control her breathing. "I had him take Elena while I grabbed Grayson. Miranda wa-. She was already gone." She wiped at her tears. "I think the boy called for the ambulance before diving in because they were there maybe a minute or two after. Gray's in surgery right now. They said he had internal bleeding. Elena's bruised and possibly has a concussion. She hasn't woken up yet so they're moving her into a room and want to keep her for observation after she wakes, just in case." Jenna grabbed her hand knowing how close her and Grayson were and how hard it must have been to be the one to see all of it.

When a nurse came to tell them Elena's room number Amelia convinced Jenna to take Jeremy up so Elena wouldn't be alone while she waited to hear from surgery. It was hours later that the surgeon finally came out "How is he?" Dr. Lowen rubbed at his face.

****Minutes Later Room 314****

Amelia opened the door and saw Jenna raise a finger to her lips to be quiet. She looked around the corner finding Jeremy asleep in a chair by Elena's bed. "Lets talk outside" Jenna whispered and they walked out of the room leaving the door ajar. "How is he?"

"They said he lost a lot of blood but they managed to stop the bleeding." She smiled at her brokenly, tears in her eyes.

"But?"

"He's in a coma. They're not sure when he'll wake up, if he'll wake up." Jenna pulled her into a hug as she cried, tears falling from her own eyes. Moments later Jenna pulled away.

"When we were downstairs talking about the accident, you looked at Jeremy before saying what happened. You stopped yourself from saying something. What? Amelia, tell me."

"It- I don't know! Maybe I imagined it, Jenna."

"Ames, talk to me."

"Before the car went over. Before it hydroplaned, Jenna, all I know is Elena looked like she leaned towards the front and after that..." She shook her head, raising her hand to wipe at her face.

"You think Elena caused the accident?" Jenna rasped.

"I don't know, Jenna. What I do know? Is that Grayson wasn't reckless especially with any of us in the car but he lost control! The way the car turned like that wasn't something caused by hydroplaning, the car hydroplaned because of the turn. And Elena, Elena was drunk. I don't know what but_ something_ happened in that car that made Grayson lose control of it."

"Ok. So then when Elena or Grayson is awake and Jeremy isn't in the room we find out what happened." Neither had known that as they spoke they were being listened in on.

****The Next Day****

"You're awake." Jeremy said from her side. "Aunt Lia, Aunt Jenna she's awake! I'll go get the doctor!" he said before running out to the nurses' station.

"What happened? Why am I in the hospital?"

"What's the last thing you remember?" Jenna asked her.

"I- I got into a fight with Matt and called home. Everything's a blur after that."

"The three of you were in an accident." Amelia said from the corner she was standing in.

"Are Mom and Dad, ok?" she looked at Jenna ignoring her other aunt.

"Your dad is in a coma, we're not sure when he'll wake up."

"What about Mom?" When Jenna turned away without giving her an answer she turned to Amelia. "Where's my mom?"

"She didn't make it, Elena."

"You're lying. You're lying!" She cried.

****Four Months Later****

****Elena's Room****

_Dear Diary: Today will be different. It has to be. I will smile and it will be believable. That smile will say, "I'm fine, thank you." "Yes, I feel much better." I will no longer be the sad little girl who lost her parents. I will start fresh, be someone new. It's the only way I'll make it through._

She left the diary open on her bed when she walked out. If anyone had been in the room they would have seen the wind from the open window flip the pages to a section from months ago.

At the bottom:_ No one will ever know. As far as everyone else is concerned, I am not the girl who killed her mom or put her dad in a coma he might never wake up from. I am not the reason. I did nothing wrong. All I am is Elena Gilbert, who just lost her parents. That is all anyone needs to know_


	9. Chapter 9: Who Does Canon Anyway?

****A/N: Ok so a reviewer on Fanfiction said that while Elena's an annoying bitch it was ridiculous that she tried to kill her parents. Facts are we only know a few things that happened that night in canon. 1. Elena ditched family night. 2. Her parents were upset and went to get her after she called telling them where she was. 3. Elena was at a party out in the woods where as we've seen from damn near every party on the show involved alcohol. 4. She went off on her own after arguing with Matt. Walking away from a party in the middle of the woods is NOT what a sane or rational person does.****

****Not to make light but most people who are drunk don't mean to hurt/kill anyone. A person who is drunk, might make choices that they normally wouldn't. In Chapter 7, when Elena causes the accident she had only shoved her father in her drunkenness because she wanted her parents to focus solely on her. She hadn't meant to cause the accident that killed Miranda or left Grayson in a coma. She just wanted what she has in canon, what she thinks should be, the attention all on her. Normally, Elena wouldn't have done this but because she was drunk she wasn't thinking straight. Chapter 8, showed that while she had said she didn't remember in the hospital, she either remembered or she lied.****

****Call it the curse of the doppelgänger or whatever but has anyone else noticed that every doppelgänger we've seen seems to be worse then the previous? It's like they take the qualities of whichever one came before them especially in the case of those who become immortal carries on to the next as they become closer in age. While we don't see those who come between Amara and Tatia, Amara's selfishness seems to carry on to all future doppelgängers. Tatia's outgoingness while not immediate in Katherine/Katerina comes about in her immortal one. Another thing would be Tatia's love for her child as Katherine is shown so clearly love Nadia despite being separated from her only moments after her birth. Elena is originally outgoing (before the death of her parents), caring, and compassionate yet there are times she is judgmental, pushy, and selfish. This only grows further as the seasons go on revealing her to be hypocritical and self-absorbed. Let me know what you think but for now on to the story.****

****No POV****

Jeremy watched as Elena left with Bonnie from the window before making his way to her room. While the they didn't know, Jeremy had actually been awake when his aunts Jenna and Amelia had stepped out of Elena's hospital room to talk. He didn't know how to feel about the fact Elena may have caused the accident but he did know that he didn't want anything to do with her for now. And that feeling was only growing the more she tried to 'parent' him. It was as if she thought if everything went a certain way then she could go on as if nothing happened and everything was perfectly fine. Still the picture perfect, happy Gilbert family. He though of it as a joke though even than and only more so now. Elena and him were essentially orphans. Their aunts had taken joint custody of them and while it was Jenna who lived with them it was Amelia who made sure there was food in the fridge and dinner on the table every night. None of them knew how to cook aside from putting it in the microwave to heat up. So it was a good thing otherwise they'd be living on take-out. Jeremy though had taken to watching and even joining in on preparing dinner.

He spent most of his summer with Amelia while Jenna had focused on Elena. He usually slept at Maxwell Manor, even moving half his clothes there. Amelia had it renovated while she had been in New York. During the times he had visited she had often asked him what he would want in it if he lived there. It had become a game of sorts for them back then where Amelia would play the doting mother building the dream home for her and her loving son. Jeremy had wished it true so many times in the past that when Amelia became his guardian even if shared with Jenna (until his dad got better, if his dad got better) he'd been more relieved then anything else. As bad as it might have sounded he had always looked toward Amelia instead when he needed something. His dad was the only one that seemed to really be there aside from her and Jenna but with his work it was always as if he was an after thought. He felt as though he was a secondary figure compared to Elena when it cam to his mother. He still remembered overhearing her once say that Elena was her greatest joy in life and how she wished she could've had more children as if he had never existed, as if he was only a stranger living in their home.

Practically living with Amelia he had become close friends with Matt and Vicki Donovan, something which had actually been surprising to him. He spent weekends with the three of them just playing video games, usually Call of Duty. It was always sent him laughing when he heard Amelia scream when someone moved in front of her from around a corner only for her to somehow end up killing them by nut shot. Vicki had started calling her nut buster whenever we played sending us all into laughs when she pouted before joining in herself. Matt had taken some getting used to though but was actually pretty cool once he stopped obsessing over Elena. The three of them had admitted to each other to feeling like they were more Amelia's kids then their parents' one night when she had gone to get pizza before coming home. It had made them close and they began referring to each other as siblings.

They had gotten quite the shock the first time they had seen her wings. While beautiful, Jeremy had feared it meant she became an angel and so had died. It had taken awhile to calm him down from his crying to explain not only what she was but that the supernatural was real. They had known of her friend Alexi through skype and his own stay in Mystic Falls over the summer before returning to NYC and she told them she had changed him into an incubus. Vicki had wondered how she was 'feeding' as they had never seen her with anyone. It had sent them all red with a mixture of embarrassment and anger to know that some of the men and even women in town filled their heads with perverted thoughts of her enough that it kept her well enough that she didn't need to rely on anyone's 'release'. The thought of those perverts fantasizing about her and that she had to put up with knowing it just to be fed so she wouldn't wither away, getting weaker and weaker until she looked as if she was on the verge of death, pissed them off. Vicki had asked if their was anyone she wanted to feed from instantly sending her red in the face and the boys murderous at the though of some stranger touching their mother-figure.

Amelia had admitted to having two mates and having met them both. How she had met and dated Elijah, an Original Vampire and how he had disappeared from her life after she became a succubus but not before unknowingly bonding them. She admitted that the bonding meant that even if she found someone she believed she could have loved when she was 'human' she would never be able to act on it as the bond prevented it so long as it was there. Then there was Damon Salvatore, who was a vampire himself. She told them she had met him the night of the accident but had not seen him since but could feel he was still somewhat close by.


	10. Chapter 10: WTF?

They had celebrated the end of the first day of school at the Mystic Grill. Caroline, Jeremy, and Matt were talking about the new 'kid' Stefan Salvatore and his apparent interest in Elena. Matt had fortunately with Jeremy's help stopped his moping by focusing on other things. Vicki's first day at work had gone great also as she was quickly learning the ropes. It was when the boys left that Caroline turned to the others.

"Why is it that I'm never good enough? I try so hard, and I'm never the one. It's always Elena."

Amelia and Vicki both reached for her hands, each taking one into their own. "Care-bear, you have to know you are just as good if not better in every way then her."

"If they can't see you for who you are. If they can't appreciate that you're strong, determined, loyal, loving and optimistic to the point it can be a little annoying." Amelia said the last with a teasing tone in her voice. "Than they aren't worthy of you." Caroline looking over at them both with tears in her eyes.

"What would I do without you guys?"

"Be an Elena groupie, follow her around, and damn near cause the end of the world as we know it." Immediately fell past Amelia's lips. "Did I say that out load?"

"Yes!/ Duh!"

"Sorry."

"Oh. My. God. I can actually picture it. I'd feel so less and oh God, I'd like Elena and be her little minion. Blegh! Do you think Enzo would go out with me?"

Vickie spit her soda across the table and started coughing as she tried to catch her breath Amelia's eyes just staring wide open as the left began to twitch just slightly. "Holy Shit, Care!"

"What the fuck? No. Just no, that never came out of your mouth! Look Caroline, you are going to meet a hot guy whose going to fall at your feet and worship you like a queen, as he should. But until than no dating my friends, ok? Ok."

****Somewhere****, ****Unknown****

It was dark. No matter how much time passed, it seemed to only ever be night. The sun never rose and the moon never waned. The moon had been his only source of light until he made it out of the woods and then it was joined by the flickering lights of Mystic Falls. It didn't take long for him to notice something was wrong though, very wrong. Every street, barren. The cars, empty as if untouched from the moment they were parked. Every house, door open but empty. He ran to his home finding it very much the same.

It was hell being trapped, alone. He had tried as hard as he could to leave but the moment he reached the outskirts of Mystic Falls he somehow ended up walking right back into town. It didn't matter how? The road, the woods, even taking a damn boat down the fucking river didn't work. As more time passed he was left alone with only his thoughts, his memories. And the worst part was, the last thing he remembered. His car going over the bridge. His wife, beautiful Miranda. Her neck broken. Elena. His daughter, his niece. Drowning. Was she saved? Did whoever the man opening her door was, get her to the surface on time? Elena who shared the same face as a vampire. A vampire who had been in Mystic Falls 145 years ago and was burned to death in the old church. Amelia. Sweet little sister. Born when he was away at school. Not human. Why wasn't she human? Did it have to do with the fact there was another her that died the year before she was born, the very same day and around the same time.

Were they both the same? Would they die only to be reborn if they weren't turned into those monsters? But that didn't seem right to him, as if there was something missing; a link, a piece or two to the puzzle but either way still not there. Jacks had said that there were times Amelia would say the exact same things _that girl_ had said. She'd draw things and places she could have never seen, never known; from the '80s, the '70s and worst from 1864. He had gone back through all of it. He'd looked everywhere as fear was consuming him. He ransacked the journals of his family until he came upon one.

There it was, the answer to why she could draw so many things from the civil era the drawings that were so detailed, so lifelike. Amaryllis Maxwell, the woman his ancestor Johnathon had apparently obsessed over before the vampire Pearl. There was mentioning of how she had married into another of the founding families only to die by jumping off a cliff in late 1864. The day of the Battle of Willowcreek. He wrote how the council believed it was a vampire's doing as one had compelled her husband, a son of a council member and it was his suspicion over his son's back and forth between the vampire and wife that led to their learning of the existence of vampires. Hard as he tried it was all he could find along with that drawing and the mention of a Bennett witch's spell; to change what needed to be changed by calling upon a soul from a distant time and space to be reborn until their mission was complete but it failed. Only it clearly hadn't. They had thought it would bring someone to them but what if that was it? What if they had succeeded? They called Amelia or at least part of her into the past and that was why there were other versions of her. It had to be the reason. What else could it be but that?


	11. Chapter 11: Pondering and A Call?

****Hey guys sorry it's been pretty slow on updates. Between moving, school, work, and a new puppy life was a little hectic. I finally got my own place and have settled in. I love it! I'm going to try to get at least one or two updates in every week. For now though, Story Time!****

****With Damon,**** ****Salvatore House****

He opened the secret compartment within his desk. It was the one piece besides his bed that he would never allow removed from the house. The bed he had was as exact replica of the one he had in 1864, though far larger of course. He knew she would have loved it just as she had the original, he'd crafted for them himself. He couldn't figure out why he'd seen those visions when he saw her. How was it even possible? She was gone. Katherine had made sure of it and had him watch. The moment after he woke from his death and the confusion and with it the compulsions left him he'd felt as though he was thrown into hell. He looked at the picture he'd hidden.

His childhood friend. His best friend. His secret love. His betrothed. His wife, the woman that carried his child only to find him bedding another woman. His sweet Amaryllis. He remembered the first time they had met as children, running around. He remembered how he thought his father would arrange a marriage between her and Stefan. Only later finding out that she had requested her father choose otherwise regardless of their age difference. She had chosen him. He wasn't her fallback, her second choice. No, he was her first choice. She wanted him not Stefan. It was a first. And to this day only time he'd felt worth something. Then came Katherine.

He hadn't cared for her much. Was she beautiful? Yes. More beautiful than Amaryllis? Never. Good personality? HA, he saw right through those fake smiles. But his girl? She was sweet and kind to everyone she met, so long as they didn't insult her family and friends. Do that and she'd destroy you with that sharp tongue without you ever realizing it. The bitch had to compel him repeatedly for him to feel love for her. He knew it had to piss her off that he'd go limp the moment he touched her or vice versa, if she didn't compel him otherwise first. He'd slept with more women then he could bother to remember since his change just to forget he'd ever been inside her and to this day none had matched his wife. He still felt that longing for her.

When he'd seen _Elena_ he'd thought Katherine had escaped and made his revenge that much easier. Only it hadn't been her but her human double. When he saw her his heart damn near jumped out of his chest._ Amelia_. She was an exact replica of his wife. Her hair, eyes, smile, even her smell was exactly the same. He wondered if there really was a God and somehow he'd given him another chance with the only woman he'd ever loved. She was related to Elena. The fact alone filled him with questions and fears. Was she the same as Katherine? Would she hurt her? She already showed some of that same self-centeredness and loathing for her. So he'd kept an eye on her and so far so good. He might not have to kill the human double so long as she didn't make any trouble. Still, just looking at the girl made him want to rip her throat out. Could anyone really blame him for that though? She had the exact same face as the woman who compelled him to betray his wife and then his wife who just confessed her pregnancy to him to jump off a fucking cliff killing herself and our child while making me watch as she begged for me to help her. Even when she realized I couldn't she didn't blame me, instead she told me that she loved me before falling to her death.

****Gilbert House****

Jenna set the table while Amelia and Jeremy finished cooking dinner. She was glad at least they could cook otherwise they'd all be living on coffee, sandwiches, and take out. She looked up from the table and saw Jeremy bringing in some of the food before calling Elena down. _At least there's one kid that won't give me grey hair._

Amelia was just pulling out a chair when the phone rang and turned back around. "I'll get it. Gilbert residence, Amelia speaking. What? Yes, we'll be right there!" she hung up as we watched her.

"Aunt Lia?" Jeremy asked and she turned around smiling

"Your dad's awake."


	12. Chapter 12: Awake & a Talk

****Mystic Falls General Hospital****

"Gray" was all that fell from Amelia's mouth as a sob seeing her brother sitting up in the hospital bed. Tears falling from her eyes as she ran to his side grabbing him in a hug the moment his arms were held open for her. Jeremy and Elena at her heels joining in with a sobbed "Dad/Daddy" as Jenna stood at the door crying.

"It's good to see you up Grayson." Jenna said as we pulled back.

"Kids, give me a few minutes with your aunts." he said and interrupted when Elena opened her mouth to argue. "I'm felling a bit hungry could you find out when I'll be able to eat?" Jeremy nodded his head after a glance to Amelia before pulling Elena along with him. "You're not just going to stand there are you?" He asked with a raised eyebrow leaving her to give a sobbed laugh before hugging him as well. "I hope the kids weren't too much trouble for you while I was out of commission."

"I had no idea what I was doing! Oh God, please tell me you're coming home soon cause I don't know how to do the whole parenting thing and I'm pretty sure I'd be half out my mind running around like a chicken with its head cut off and missing assignments and classes if I didn't have Ames to keep me on track." She finally took in a lungful of air before looking over at her. "I really have no idea how you keep track of Vicki and Matt and Jeremy. I had my hands full just dealing with Elena's mood swings. I don't even want to imagine how Jeremy would've ended up if you weren't here helping take care of him."

"Elena . . . I need to have a talk with her . . . and Jeremy."

"Anything to do with her causing the accident?"

"Jenna! I told you I was probably se-"

"Yes."

"Grayson . . ." he reached out and grabbed both their hands, holding them in his own.

"I know, I should have listened to the both of you when you talked about getting her help. No father wants to admit there's something wrong with their child but I'm a doctor. I should have seen it. I should have listened to the both of you. She was drunk and didn't know what she was doing but the things she said . . . I never knew she felt that way."

"Grayson, what do you mean?" Amelia asked followed by Jenna's questioning as they shared a look between each other.

"Felt what way?"

"Elena felt as though she was second place to you Ames. She thought I wanted her to be another you and that she'd never measure up. It's the reason she was acting out. She wa-"

"Let me stop you there." Jenna said annoyance clear in her voice.

"Grayson, that's ridiculous." Amelia looked at him as though he had completely lost it.

"Elena has repeatedly told Ames how she was worthless and that the only reason you ever paid her any attention was because she was your sister and you didn't have a choice because it would quote 'ruin the Gilbert family name to cast out an orphan no matter how much no one wanted her around' unquote. On top of that, I know for a fact Miranda was the one who told Elena the quickest way to guilt trip you was to involve Ames!"

"What?/Excuse me?"

"What do you mean Jenna?"

"As much as I love my sister and hope she's at peace she ruined Elena. Miranda was great at the beginning she loved Amelia but when the fertility issues came up and then you adopted Elena"

"Elena's adopted?" Jeremy stood at the door looking between us.

"Son. . ."

"How long have you been standing there, Jere-bear?"

"Long enough to know Elena's adopted, Dad thinks she has an inferiority complex when it's really has the opposite and apparently Mom is somehow the root of her problems because she had fertility problems. Does this mean I'm adopted too?"

"No."

Of course not./Oh Jere, no honey."

"Where's Elena now?" Grayson asked.

"Arguing with a nurse about how you should be treated and need to eat now and not later and whatever else so she can say she's right and they're wrong."

"Jeremy!"

"Don't Grayson. You need to listen. You've been stuck in your head for months with nothing but what a drunk Elena said to you hammering away at you."

Jeremy, sit down there and tell us when you see your sister coming." Amelia said before turning to Grayson, knowing he'd do so. "Gray, Jeremy is right when he says Elena doesn't have a inferiority complex when it comes to me. If anything she has a superiority mix with a God complex when it comes to everyone else. You need to look at her objectively. Not as your daughter. Not as that little baby you adopted. Not as John's only child. Not as your niece. Ok? Take a step back and think of everything you know. How Miranda treated Elena. How Miranda treated Jeremy. You can see the difference already can't you? Now think about. You and Miranda had just gotten married and found out she might not be able to have kids when Mom and Dad died and you had to take me in. She thought I was her only chance at a child and I didn't view her as a mom. She wasn't my mom and I know she never forgave me for that. When Elena came along and John and Isobel couldn't take care of her, she grabbed onto Elena and she had the daughter she wanted that I just wasn't. I know you never thought of it that way, but Miranda always viewed me as the one taking your attention away from the daughter she'd given you."

"She didn-"

"I know, Gray. But Miranda, was the one that talked you into 'adopting' Elena. She was the one who convinced you that you had to _save_ John from _ruining_ his life."

"That . . ." he sighed out dumbfounded "Those were her exact words." He looked at me

"I know. I was on the steps listening. She had you forge Elena's birth certificate and you guys told everyone that you used a surrogate and that was why Miranda hadn't been showing. You risked your career for her to quote unquote have a daughter and two years later Jeremy came along, your miracle baby only he didn't stay a baby. And Jeremy wasn't that kid that always needed to be the center of attention, he didn't cling to her but Elena did. And you were finishing your residency and had the oddest and worst hours but even with that you came home and you spent time with us but Miranda wanted her 'mother-daughter time' and as time passed she'd say you didn't spend enough time with Elena and that's why you two weren't so close or you didn't know this or that about her. And that you favored one of us over the other and that Elena always got the short end of it but she didn't! Miranda knew how to play you perfectly. God Grayson, she didn't even have to say anything and you would bend over backwards just from a simple look, so much as a hint of a frown."

"She's right, Grayson. As much as I looked up to my sister. I never understood it. She wasn't perfect, but God did she come off as it. And if it hadn't been for Ames I would have never realized the gaps and issues there were between you two that you never realized because you just wanted her happy even if you weren't."


	13. Chapter 13: Space

**~Amelia's POV~**

it was two weeks after he woke from a coma that Grayson had settled back in at home and asked that I let Jeremy and Jenna sleep over after dinner so he could speak with Elena privately. I'd made us all his favorite for dinner and dessert, chicken parmigiana casserole and white chocolate coated red velvet cake balls. We had sat down and eaten quietly. The only sound being our utensils against the plate. It was stifling and I knew that none of us could wait for this to finally be over.

Once we were finished and the dishes were in the washer, he finally spoke. "I think it's time we start being honest with each other."

"What do you mean, Daddy?"

"He means we stop hiding things. Was he not being clear?" Jeremy asked Elena sarcasticly.

"Enough." He turned to me "I don't know when or what but I guess it was sometime while you were away in NY, that you changed. . . . You're no longer human."

"Daddy?" Elena called hesitantly as Jeremy and Jenna stiffened already well aware of my supernatural status.

"From the way you two are tensing I suppose you two are well aware of the truth about our little town aren't you?" Grayson lips twisted into a bitter smile.

"Yes/Yea."

"Are you a danger to them?" He looked me in my eyes.

"No! God Gray, I might not be completely human anymore but I'm still your sister!"

"Are you?"

"Yes, I am." I met his eyes trying to get across to him that nothing had changed.

"And that's the only reason I'm not revealing you to the council because no matter who. No. No matter what you are, you were my sister. If you still are I don't know but considering the fact that you never asked to enter the house when you came back and you haven't hurt them since I'll at least trust that you won't hurt them." My breath caught as I listened to him and just shook my head. This was my greatest fear come alive. Grayson knew I wasn't human and he couldn't handle it. "I want you to leave. I'll tell you when I'm ready to talk but for now go. Jeremy, you can sleepover tonight along with Jenna but I want you back in your room tomorrow on."

"That's not fair!"

"Fair or not! I am your parent, your father and what I say goes. Am I clear? I said am I clear Jeremy?"

"Yes, sir." Jeremy glared at him from under his bangs.

"Jere-" Grayson stopped when Jeremy walked past him and out the door.

"I'll drive him." Jenna grabbed her purse and keys before following him but not before squeezing my shoulder.

"What is going on? Why are you saying Amelia isn't human? I mean, I get why. She's a freak but you ne-"

"Elena! Be quiet, now. I'll get to you soon enough." Elena's startled look was enough to show she hadn't expected that.

"I'm still me, Gray." I said as he turned back to me.

"Maybe, but until I'm sure that you aren't a threat to my family-"

"Our family!"

"I can't stop Jenna from seeing you but just say whatever you need to say to Jeremy, tonight. Tomorrow he moves back in and you . . . You stay away." He sighed before continuing. "I'll let you know when I want to see you."

"Fine." I said as I nodded my head in disbelief. "But don't think for a moment that I won't be talking to Jere on his cell and if he chooses to come see me, I'm not kicking him out! He's my nephew, for God's sake while Miranda was off with Elena and you too busy working I did most of his raising, myself! He's as good as mine and I'm not going to let you destroy that because I'm not the right species to be your sister anymore Gray!" I grabbed my bag before turning to leave.

"Wait." He called out when my hand reached the door knob. "Do you know why Jackson would come around all the time when you were little but stopped when you turned 14?"

I turned around to look at him, confusion clear on my face. "No. He never said why just that he couldn't be here but I could always call on him if I needed him. Why?"

"He gave me a photo once. One of him and . . . Amina. I think it's something you need to see a long with this." He took a book down from the hall closet's top shelf and handed it to me. "The page you need to see is marked."

"That it?" I turned back to face the door and asked, choking back a sob. I refused to let him see what he was doing to me.

"For what it's worth, I am sorry, Amelia."

"No. You're not." I said before leaving.


	14. Chapter 14: Discovery

I threw the book and it contents onto the passanger seat once I got into my 2010 Honda Crosstour EX-L. Sighing, before making my way home. It didn't take long once I pulled in the drive to see that Jeremy and Jenna had let the Matt and Vicki know what happened. "What happened once we left?" Jenna asked the moment I stepped out.

"Inside." Was my only response as I grabbed what I now knew as I actually focused on it was one of the Gilbert Family journals. Once we'd settled in the living room I left them know all that Grayson had said after they Jenna chased after Jeremy.

"How can he just write you off like that? You're family!" Vicki looked furious as she spoke.

"I'm not going back./I'm moving in." Jeremy and Jenna had spoken simultaneously before both looking at each other before Jenna gave him a smile and turned back to me. "If that's ok with you?"

"Of course it is. Jere, I can't keep you here as much as I want you to stay here and believe me I do but he's your dad. I'm not saying you can't come over!" I interrupted before he could argue. "I already told him that I wouldn't stop you from coming here but Jere-bear, you will have to go home." I told him as tears welled up in my eyes.

"But this is my home." He said desperation clear in his voice as he held back his own tears. "This isn't fair! He wasn't here this summer and I have more memories with you then I do him! You're the one who was always there! You're my mom!" My breath hitched as I felt my heart stutter knowing he felt just as I did that he was as good as mine. He realized then what he had said. "You're my mom." He whispered seemingly to himself as I saw his tears begin to fall before he raced out and up the stairs to his bedroom. My hand rose to cover my mouth as I released a sob.

"Oh, Ames." Jenna moved to my side and wrapped an arm around my shoulders pulling me into a hug as Vicki came to my other side and rubbed my back.

"I think I'll head up and talk with Jere. Maybe some, one on one, brother time might help." Matt said ackwardly before making a dash for the stairs and raising a giggle out of us and I wiped the tears away from my cheeks.

"Leave it to my kid brother, to lighten up the mood without ever meaning to." Vicki smiled at us.

"You're only a year older then him, not exactly your kid brother."

"Oh please, have you seen him and Jere fight over the last cookie! They are kids!" I laughed at her response to Jenna. I knew they were trying to get my mind off everything that happened tonight and I let them. "So what is this for, anyways?" Vic said picking up the journal.

"Isn't that one of the Gilbert journals your great whatever wrote."

"Yea, it's one of those." I said taking it from her hands. "Grayson said he marked a page that I needed to read. Apparently there's a photo in here I need to see to. Considering he just handed it to me on my way out, I have to wonder how long he'd been planning this." I shook my head, hoping to clear my mind of those thoughts as I opened to the ear marked page only for the photo to fall out. "Damnit." I muttered as Jenna reached down and picked it up from beneath the coffee table only for my breath to catch as I looked at the drawing on the page in front of me. For there staring right back at me was, me.

"Ames, I thought you hadn't seen Jack in years aside from when he came for your graduation in NY? But why does the photo look so old and the same age?" Jenna asked confused as she faced the picture towards me and again my heart skipped. For there in the photo that was clearly decades old was myself as a teenager with a wide open-mouthed smile and a similar aged Jacks with a falsely shocked face holding bunny ear behind my head looking to be just the same age in front of a train.


	15. Chapter 15: Talk Pt 1

****Gilbert House****

Elena did as her dad told her and had listened as he spoke of how there was more then just humans walking the earth. She didn't understand how everything was just going right, her life was about to be perfect well aside from her mom being dead but Amelia was kicked out! Then, her dad started talking crazy. It was as if he'd been spending time with Bonnie's grandma, the drunk bitch. And then it clicked. That had to be it. Bonnie's 'Grams', Sheila Bennet, had to be the reason her dad was talking about there being vampires. She most have been spouting her crazy and he latched onto it. She had to do something but what? She couldn't tell anyone he thought vampires were real he'd end up in a loony bin and that just didn't fit in with her plans. Hell she'd be back where she started when he was in a coma and with Amelia as one of her guardians. Ick.

"Elena, pay attention! I know this is a lot to take in but this knowledge has been passed down through the Gilbert family for over a hundred years. In fact, all the founding families and even those working in the Mystic Falls Police Station are aware of this. It's only been your generation that hasn't grown up with the knowledge since birth. We, that is the council, decided it was best to wait until our children were grown before letting them in on the secret. I admit now, that may have been a mistake on our parts." He sighed at he ran a hand through his hair.

"Wait a minute. Your saying the Founding Families, all believe this? In vampires and woo-ooo?" Elena wiggled her fingers out at him.

"Yes, Elena. That is what I've been trying to tell you the past half hour but that is the least important that we have to discuss."

"What could be more important than the fact that this town's governing body has meeting that are actually secret meeting about the supernatural and not actually the town? Wait! Is Amelia a vampire? Is that what this is about? Do I have to stake her as some sort of initiation or something?" She smiled at the thought of Amelia being this monster she got to take down. It was like a dream come true.

"ELENA!" Grayson's eyes narrowed in on her, furious. "Amelia, is not a vampire. I don't know what she is but a vampire isn't it. And you will keep your mouth shut about her being anything but human. Do you understand me?"

"Dad, you ju-"

"I said. DO. YOU. UNDERSTAND." His brown eyes glared down on her and she swallowed hard.

"Yes, sir."

"Good. There will be no talk of staking your aunt."

"Is she still my aunt?"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I just mean, you just got done talking about how it was human vs monster. As in you are human or you're not. Prey vs. Predator. You said Amelia isn't human so is she really still my 'Aunt' or is she just the enemy?" Elena raised her hands as she quoted aunt during her questioning.

"She- Amelia I-" Grayson struggled with an answer. He knew what his heart was saying but his head said something completely different. He loved her. Hell, he raised her after the death of their father and her mother. She had been his sunshine since the day he laid eyes on her; only for her hands to reach out, grab his nose and giggle. His father's words rang in his head though. There's only one thing to remember son. There's humans and then there are monsters. If is isn't human, it doesn't deserve your sympathy. It's nothing but a monster looking for its next victim. But was he right? He'd lived by those words for so long. If he didn't hold to them then what did it say about all he'd done? What did it say about him and Augustine? Augustine. The very thought of Amelia taking the place of one of his subjects, ripped at him. Their occasional screams of pain being replaced by hers as they/she was cut open, as their/her organs were removed piece by piece to see if it could regenerate. He stood knocking into the coffee table and sending his mug crashing to the floor as he stumbled only to stop at the doorway. "Amelia, is my sister. That makes her your aunt. A member of this family whether she forgives me for doubting that or not. And you will not do anything that compromises her safety in any way, Elena." He turned to meet his adopted daughter's eyes, the brown eyes of his mother with a look he remembered once being in John's, (during his little rebellion against the family) head on. "If you do, you won't like the consequences, Elena. I promise you that. And do not think that just because I am ending this here that our conversation is over. We still need to discuss your behavior that night."

"Wha- What are you talking about?" Elena's heart stuttered. She'd never seen her dad look at her the way he just did. And she was pretty sure he had just threatened her to keep her mouth shut. He couldn't possibly mean the night she thought he did though. The doctors said he'd probably be unable to remember most of what happened that day let alone ever that night considering the trauma.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about Elena. The night you called and lied to your mother once she mentioned Amelia was picking you up saying she put her hands on you. The night you were so drunk, you couldn't control yourself and sent us careening off the Wickery Bridge, killing my wife. That night."

"Dad, I-"

"Don't. I know you've been lying about not remembering the details of that night. So does Amelia, Jenna, and even Jeremy." She gasped at that.

"H-How?"

"Amelia was driving behind us, she saw you. She wasn't sure about it and told Jenna as much when she told her. They planned on talking to you about it but you pretended not to remember. As for Jeremy, well, he read your journal. Stop pretending, Elena. Haven't you realized yet that it does nothing but dig you into a deeper hole?"


	16. Chapter 16: Remembrance - Amina

A/N: This chapter will reveal the murder of Amina and bits of her relationship with Jack before going into bits of the life and death of Amaryllis Salvatore in the next chapter.

Amelia?

.

.

Amelia!

.

AMELIA!

Her vision went dark as she heard Jenna and Vicki's yelling her name. _I'm. right. here._

_Who._

_Am._

_I?_

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

"Jack?" She called out from having set their small table in the kitchen after making his favorite in the hope of surprising him since he'd been working late tonight and would be home soon. "Jack is that you?" She asked again as she wiped her hands off on the dish towel before making her way out of the kitchen and to the bedroom, wondering how she didn't hear him come in before remembering she had only just turned their little radio off before setting the table. She froze the moment she saw her. The woman who'd killed that boy sitting there on the bed, fingers turning a small blade round and round. She tried to scream only to be grabbed by the throat. She clawed at the woman's hands as she was lifted into the air. She couldn't breathe.

"Now, the police are going around with a sketch of me. Can you tell me how they got that, hmm?" The redheaded woman asked with a frown. The lilt of her voice made it well aware she knew who was responsible. "I told you to keep your mouth shut. Why couldn't you just do that? It would have made the game so much more fun."

"G-g-game?" She coughed out as she was dropped, gasping for air.

"Yes, a game. Now do as I say and keep quiet. You see I've been around . . . awhile and after a few years of the same old thing hunt and kill, catch and release, catch release and hunt." She said keeping their eyes locked as she smiled down at her. "It gets soo boring. You need to spice it up, add in something new. Lately, I've been letting myself get caught in the act to find my newest feed. Scare them a little and let them run. Usually they try to get away, go as far as possible. Oh, those are fun. The hunt." She shivers in pleasure her eyes closing momentarily before snapping back to the brunette and she leans over her. "The adrenaline pumping makes them that much more, delicious. Stay still." She says looking into her eyes and licks the brunette from jugular to cheek. "Unfortunately, now there are people looking for me. You ruined my game." She bent down and whispered into her ear. "I wonder how quickly that boyfriend of yours will move on after finding you? Think he'll give me a ride?" She pulls back smirking to watch her eyes widen in fear before biting down on her jugular as deep as her fangs will allow and tearing as she drinks. The girl's blood spurting out as she rips the flesh off her neck, moaning and shivering as she lifts her head up and arches her back. "I've never tasted blood so incredible. To think, a few swallows of your blood actually got me off." She leans back down to lick at her neck. "Such a shame you'll be dead within seconds otherwise I would've healed you to take with me." She pets her hair and arranges her prettily on the floor. "Shh. Shh. It'll be over soon." She says as she sees the tears sliding down her face and her rasping breaths as she grabs the blade she'd set aside and begins carving into her. She hears the sound of one of the neighbors knocking at the door and saying they had some mail for her mixed with theirs. "Guess that's my cue to go." She took one last look at the girl feeling as though she was forgetting something as she took in her face, a distant memory of something she hadn't really bothered to pay attention to before dismissing the thought. She made her way to the front door pulling her leather gloves back on. "That food really does smell good. One bite won't hurt." She picked up a piece of the roast beef from the plate and ate it. "Damn, that's good." She turned to walk back out only pausing to quickly fix herself in the hallway mirror before looking at the skinny table that was set in front of it, more specifically the flowers and turned back to look at door that hid the dying girl. "Sage, huh? How ironic."

_Jack._

_Jackson._

_I'm._

_Still._

_Here._

_Right._

_Here._

_I'm._

_Still._

_Breathing._

****﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹊﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉****

"Amina, come on."

"Tell me where we're going and . . . maybe." She laughs.

"Amy." He wraps his arms around her.

"Yes, Jack?" She says teasingly.

"I love you." He say looking into her eyes. She put a hand to his cheek before kissing him.

"I love you too." She smiles at him. She sees an older couple watching them with a smile. "Excuse me, do you mind taking a picture or two of me and my boyfriend? It's kind of our first trip together." She said holding out her polaroid camera.

****﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹊﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉****

She was sat in the bar with a few friends before getting up to get them another pitcher of beer, happy she had remembered her fake ID. She still doesn't know how she managed to let them convince her into buying the outfit she was currently in. Black leotard, leather pants, a leather jacket and a cowboy hat wasn't exactly the type of girl she was. Her chest wasn't as pronounced as the other girls and she couldn't help but wonder if that was one of the reasons they talked her into it. She felt almost as though a child dressing up. when she had realized that the leotard had made her chest seem flat, something that she had not been in years.

"Hey!" She called out to the bartender only getting a wave of his hand as he flirted with a woman half out of her glittery top. "Hello!" She scoffed, shaking her head at the ridiculousness of it. Honestly, the only way she'd probably get his attention is if she started stripping and that wasn't going to happen.

"Hey, man! The lady here wants a drink!" The bartender turned around a scowl on his face before his eyes widened in panic and he stood straight up from where he'd been leaning and came to take my drink order.

"Thanks for that." I said glancing at him.

"No problem. I'm Jackson Crane."

"Amina."

"No last name?"

"You a fed or something?" I asked making him chuckle.

"No, I'm no fed. Just a nice guy interested in the gorgeous girl in front of him." I raised my brow at him.

"Ok, look I'm just gonna say this once so listen up, Jackie-boy. I'm not looking for a nice guy, I don't do boyfriends and I don't date."

"Jackie-boy?" His lips twitched up at the corner of his mouth before forming into a grin. "Alright, then. So you don't do nice guys, boyfriends, or dates. How about dancing?"

"You don't give up, do you?"

"No, not really." She sucked at her teeth before sighing and looking to see the bartender still wasn't done with her and her friends' drink orders before looking back at him.

"Tell me why the bartender practically rushed over after you called him and maybe I'll dance."

"I'm gonna need more than a maybe."

"Fine. I'll dance." She said rolling her eyes and making him smile wider.

"My dad owns this bar. So how about we let Felix over there bring the drinks to the table while we hit the floor?" He held a hand out to her.

"I said I'd dance. Not that I'd dance with you, Jackie-boy." She said putting her black cowgirl hat back on and dancing away.

r/LilyCollins/comments/b7jrvg/lily_collins_cowgirl_dance/?st=k5bv2hcy&sh=29bdd88d

A/N: If you want to see her dancing just look up lily collins cowgirl dance. Added link ^^^ (GIF is to big for Wattpad and AO3)


	17. Chapter 17: Remembrance-Amaryllis 1 of 3

****A/N****: I've dedicated a bit of time onto getting all these chapters, between my multiple stories, out at once. Though admittedly I hoped to do so earlier but ended up with a bit of writer's block where I literally would sit in front of my laptop and have nothing come and what did would be immediately deleted because I hated it. Fortunately, it has lifted thanks to my beautiful little pup, Luna and her tendency to flick through Netflix since discovering the new mystery (for her) that we call a remote that changes the big flat rectangle we call a tv and shows other potential slaves to her big brown eyes and begs for a tummy rub. BTW, has anyone else noticed the really weird placements of some of these movies?

****Now on to the Story****

She ran into the forest, her little hands fisted into her skirts. It would not be long before her brother finished his counting should he have not already begun seeking her out. Her young mind sure he would not find her if she hid in the large oak just ahead which stood at the edge of the property. The corners of the child's mouth lifting as she saw the great oak before her for she knew it had a hollowed middle. She rounded the tree to enter its belly only to be sent careening to the ground. Looking up in surprise she saw fallen across from her a boy, one closer to her brother's eight years then her four. She looked upon him, taking in his dark brown near black hair and his eyes as blue as the cloudless sky. Unknown to her, he did the same and took in her honey brown hair, and big green-grey eyes. He found her to be the prettiest girl he had ever seen and wondered if, much like in the fairytales his mother told him before bed, she was a dream fairy for according to his mother while a dream fairy made sure you had not but pleasant dreams as one slumbered, and mother was never wrong, dream fairies were the prettiest of all. If she was than maybe he could keep her.

* * *

"Oh! Hello there, Ser Stefan. And how does my knight brave today?" the sweet voice of the ten year old brunette sounded.

"With justice, fair lady!" The seven year old boy stated loudly making her smile widely.

"I do not believe that is what she meant, little brother."

"Oh, if it is not Prince Damon. At last you have come, my prince!" He smirked down at her.

"Aye, my princess, I have arrived. Tell me, what injustice has dare befallen you? Tell me so I might smite it for daring to threaten your safety!" He exclaimed sending her into a fit of giggles.

She had finished her lessons and was returning to her chambers when she heard her name in passing and quickly sought a place to hide before dashing behind the window drapes which pooled around the floor ensuring her feet would also be hidden.

"-ryllis. I am unsure of how to speak with you on this, my friend." Her brother's voice clearing as they walked in her direction.

"Simple! Just say it, James."

"You like my sister in the way I do Miss Margaret Castle."

"You cannot be serious!"

"Think, Damon. We are fifteen and yet you allow her to pull you into the silly games she plays with your own brother, who is a child himself. And I shall not even bother to mention those ridiculous nick-names you have for her."

"They are not ridiculous!"

"You call her Snowflake! God be good, Damon! When you think there is no one else but the her in the room you call her YOUR princess of dreams! If you do not have feelings for my little sister, I will eat my shoe!"

"Well then get to chewing, James!" Damon voice demanded coldly. "I do not hold affections for a child. Especially, not one who is so clearly infatuated with my own brother!"

"That is it. Is it not?"

"What are you on about, now?"

"You think Amy will prefer Stefan." Damon's voice went unheard for many moments as she held her breath awaiting his answer.

"I do not know what you could ever possibly mean, James but it is late. I should be returning to my family's estate."

"Damon!" She listened and waited until she could no longer hear her brother chasing after him. Little did she know, her cheeks were quite red as she retired to her chambers.

* * *

It had been four years since she and James had last been to her family's estate in Mystic Falls, Virginia after returning to Ceuta [Spanish Territory on the north African coast along the boundary of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean] after learning of their grandfather's illness. While he had held on for another two and a half years after their arrival it was hard to see the strong man they had known and heard so many stories of fall after finally being rid of the Cholera. His body unable to cope with the day to day strain. The epidemic had spread across not only the continent but worldwide, preventing them from traveling back home for fear of being further exposed and without the aid of a doctor. Their journey home after his arrangements were made was only postponed further when war broke out at the town borders. The fighting was pushed back into Morocco and the Spanish won but only after April 26,1860. They were on the first ship back to the states less then a month later.

He waited for her, their carriage to arrive every day. Phillipe and Marianna Maxwell also waited anxiously for the arrival of their only two children, neither having been seen in over four years. Letters were exchanged but there were those that had been lost and while a letter had arrived telling them when the siblings should be arrive should the ocean fare well there was no greater relief than that which was felt that first of July when a carriage pulled up outside the Maxwell estate and revealed a deeply tanned James followed by an equally tanned and much older Amaryllis. Damon's breathing halted as he caught her eyes. Gone was the little girl who left in her pink dress promising to write as often as she could. For now that girl has become a woman in a dual-colored feathered straw hat, a red ribbon bow necklace with a single gold charm hanging at her neck, and a grey and burgundy striped corseted cream gown with a live rose broach at her chest.

A/N: If you can see pic below imagine Megan Fox wearing her outfit as she steps out of the carriage.

* * *

She knew now she had returned home and was not only flowered but of well past the beginning of her birthing years she would have to marry. She wondered if they had begun seeking a suitor for her hand as of yet as she made her way to her father's office. She had just raised her hand to knock upon the ornate wooden door her father had carved himself when she heard his voice.

"She is seventeen, Marianna. She will be an old maid soon. People will begin to talk, they will question her virtue especially with how long she has been gone from us. You know this!"

"But she has only just returned to us!"

"I know, mi amore. This is not without challenge for me, as well. Amaryllis is my, our only daughter. To have to give her away to a man." His voice seemed to tighten. "I must wonder how your father did not hate me when we wed, let alone when we left with the children to settle here."

"Oh, my love, he did."

"Pardon?" Amaryllis quickly covered her mouth so as not to laugh at the surprise in her father's voice.

* * *

"Tell me now you are positive, sweet girl? If you are not set upon this betrothal, I swear to you, I will put a stop to this now an-" The young brunette interrupted the older quickly.

"Mother! I want this. I think I have since I first met him when I was but a little girl, playing hide and seek in the woods between our estates. What I feel when he looks at me. Mother, I have never felt such with anyone else. I know you favor John Gilbert for my hand but I do not think I could ever be happy with him. Content, perhaps? Yet . . . I know I would spend every day wondering, if I do not follow my heart now! If it is not Damon, then I wish to not marry . . . at all."

* * *

Wedding Appearance: Modest corseted lace gown with high lace neckline and long sleeves with semi-long train. Spanish wedding mantilla/veil worn on styled messy beehive bun with two side bangs revealed. Wildflowers for bouquet. Engagement ring is double halo with a princess cut diamond in white gold.

****A/N: Collage will be up next chapter on Wattpad and Ao3 (if Fanfic want to see it, the story is published under the same title and name) along with the end of the wedding and of course it's most important part. Their vows. Unfortunately, it is likely also the arrival of Katherine.****

* * *

It was the day of the wedding. Damon stood at the alter of the Fell's Church with Stefan as his best man as the pews filled. He fixed at Stefan's tie seeing it was crooked. "What would you ever do without me around, little brother?"

"Oh that is easy. I would simply call upon Amy to get you." He laughed and the corner of Damon's lip lifted.

"Enough, tomfoolery. This is a church, a house of worship not a bar Damon." Their father walked up from behind them. "Consider yourself lucky, boy. I planned on having the Maxwell girl marry Stefan, they would have made a fine couple. Unfortunate, that there must be something wrong with the girl for according to her father, he allowed the girl's input in her choice of suitor. Foolishness I say. She could have had her pick of the eligible men here in Mystic Falls, even your brother, and yet it is you she chooses." He says, lips curling. "Regardless, once this wedding is done with the Salvatore Mills will have an exclusive contract with the Maxwell Building Contracts. I'm proud of you, son. You were finally good for something." He said before walking to his seat.

"Damon."

"Stop fretting, Stefan." Damon said with a genuine smile. "Father, cannot ruin this day for me. Today, I marry the woman who I chose and whom chose me in return. Nothing will stop me from marrying Amaryllis and spending the rest of my life with her." Little did he know he would have but only a few years before her life would end as he was forced to watch.

* * *

"Father, what is it? Is there something on my face?" Her hand reached up and she rushed towards the mirror. Her father releasing a chuckle.

"No, my dear girl. I seem to have been struck with memories of you as a little girl. You always said you would never marry that way you could stay my little one forever. Yet here you are ready to walk to the alter. So much time has passed since then." Tears rose up in Phillipe's grey eyes.

"Oh, Papa." She rushed into his arms. "It does not matter how much time passes, I will always be your little girl. Be it when I was a babe kicking into this, a four year old who thinks all boys but her Papa are fools, or now as you walk me to the man that is to be my husband. I may not need you every day, for every little thing but I do need you. I need you to be my strong but gentle Papa. The man who raised me to know that I may be a woman but that does not mean I am worth less than any man. The man who taught me how to read, and write, how to shoot, and to kick a boy where the sun should not shine, should he dare lay a hand upon me. I will need you all my life Papa. After all, who else will hold back Mama about giving her grandbabies." Phillipe laughed loudly as the tears fell from his eyes and he grabbed hold of his little girl; holding onto her tightly and remembering a time when he was the only man she needed in his life. A time where she would run to him without a care for what another thought of it. Marianna may had raised her to be a lady but he raised her to be a survivor. His sweet girl would not die like his sister had. Neglected, beaten, or raped by the man their own father had wed her off to that she tied a noose around her neck and hung herself from the staircase after yet another miscarriage caused by Raul's beatings. No, this is why he let her choose. Let any who know call him a fool but his daughter would not die the way Estrella had.


	18. Chapter 18: Remembrance-Amaryllis 2 of 3

Wedding Appearance: Modest corseted lace gown with high lace neckline and long sleeves with semi-long train. Spanish wedding mantilla/veil worn on styled messy beehive bun with two side bangs revealed. Wildflowers for bouquet. Engagement ring is double halo with a princess cut diamond in white gold. [A/N: Collage below on Wattpad & Ao3]

* * *

"Amaryllis, we met thirteen years ago and since that day not a single one has passed that I have not thought of you. You walk into a room and it brightens as though the sun has never shined. You can take what are the worst of days of my life and somehow make me feel as though they are the best. When I look at you, I see hope. Hope for a better tomorrow because with you I know I have happiness. With you, I have everything I have ever dreamed. My mother used to tell me stories about dream fairies. She said that dream fairies were angels that came when we slept to make sure all our good dreams would come true and that those that were not would simple fade away. I call you my Princess of Dreams because the very first time I laid eyes on you with your sun shining down upon you, just you and those big eyes looking across from me I thought you could not possibly be anything else and thought to keep you. I had wished of having someone who would be my friend, my confidant, and you gave that to me. With James." Amaryllis laughed along with the rest of those in the church (all but one).

"Do not bring me into this!" James called from the pew, getting a few more chuckles out of everyone.

"You are my best friend, you understand and accept me as I am, in a way no one else ever has and that I whole heartedly believe no one else can. You make me a better man than I ever thought I could be. As such I vow to you that I will love you without reservation or conditions. I vow to always give more than I take. I vow that we will be partners in this life and that which comes after. I vow that my heart is yours and yours alone. I vow that I will be a man worthy of you, the husband you deserve. So today I take you as my wife for who you are, who you have been, and who you are yet to be. I love you, Amaryllis." Tears slid down her cheeks.

* * *

"Damon, when we met I knew all that I had ever known would change. Through you I have gained a younger brother. You have taught me what it is to have the truest and closest of friends and after today I will be one of far to few who can say they have married their best friend. The love I hold for you cannot ever possibly be defined by words shared here today, or ever. Let it be defined however by the time we will spend together." She took a breath to steady her voice, knowing that her joy of being here with him and knowing they would be together always from this day forth was overwhelming her.

"When I am with you, I feel safe. Everything in me recognizes you as home. I believe in you, in the person you have been, will grow to be, and the family we will be together. I promise to be supportive and always make our family's love and happiness my priority. Seeing you smile, truly smile, is one of the greatest joys in my life. I promise to always do everything possible to keep you smiling, and to fill our lives with as much laughter and happiness as possible. With my whole heart, I take you as my husband knowing and accepting your faults and your strengths, as you do my own. I will dream with you, celebrate with you, and walk at your side through whatever this life and the next may bring. You are my love and my life, today and always. For within you I have found my soulmate. And it is with that, I can tell you with absolute certainty that I did, I do, and I will always choose you. I love you, Damon Salvatore." Tears welled in his eyes as his hands reached up to cup her face and he leaned in to kiss her, unable to hold himself back any longer.

* * *

They were walking around the town square as trader's had arrived and set up shop when a glint caught her eye from a jeweler's stand and she excused herself from her husband's side as he conversed with his brother. It was the most peculiar stone she had ever seen. Cloudy and yet reflective. The stone was encased in white gold at the center of a halo of diamonds. Her hand reached out subconsciously.

"See something you like, dearie?" An older gentleman's voice asked startling her.

"Oh, yes. This one here. I've never seen such a stone before." She did not notice as the man's eyes widened before focusing upon her.

"Ah, yes. It has a certain charm, does it not?"

"Quite so."

"Take it."

"What? I couldn't possibly."

"Dearie, this is my stall and I believe this necklace calls to you. It was meant to find it's way to you." The dark-skinned man took the pendant out from it's display and passed it to her as they exchanged names.

"You are the new bride of the town, I have heard much in regards to you. In all the towns I have passed through not one has there been a single time a person has sought this necklace. I believe that this is meant for you. I will hear of no refusal, the necklace would merely collect dust with me. Take it as a wedding gift. It is said to be blessed you know."

"I beg your pardon?"

"That stone. It is said it is capable of holding great power. Wear it always. It is said that the holder of that specific stone could always reunite the owner with whomever they loved most." He said before whispering quickly under his breath, only loud enough for her ears to catch parts of the strange language.

"Of course. I will wear it always." She heard Damon call her name. "Please, excuse me." She said before making her way to him.

"I did not notice that earlier. Is that new?" He said looking at the necklace she now wore.

"Yes, apparently I am the first to even notice it despite having been through a number of town's already. The shop keep gifted it to me, in congratulations of our union."

"Then I must thank her."

"Him, my love."

"Him? Well, very well and what is this man's name so he may join us for sup." A hint of jealousy in his voice, at an unknown man gifting his wife such fine jewelry.

"Samuel. Samuel Bennet."

* * *

Spring had arrived but so too had the conscription for the war which them all in tizzies, as more and more men of the town were drafted into the Confederacy. It was at this time however, that the surprise that the men in Amaryllis' life had completed the surprise they had worked on since their betrothal. Unfortunately, it's building was due to the winter's snowfall pushed back and only just completed. A white plantation home on several wooded acres that lied between their families property built directly in front of the very great oak the two lovers had met with a swing set upon one of it's branches. And so, they began their life together for the next few years in their new home.

Damon's conscription had left her heart broken but she knew why he could not refuse nor send another in his place. It had been subtle at first but the young couple had noticed that any of the families that did so would find a younger son or brother also conscripted. Damon would not take the chance of such occurring with Stefan especially when they did not know when this fighting would end. And so it was with a heavy heart she saw him off that summer in 1861. While he returned steady during his leaves they both knew that being out their was taking its toll upon him and so when he was home she did her best. She held him as he woke from the night terrors. She helped him wash his hands of the blood he saw always grabbing an extra cloth rag so that when she went over his hand drying them, she could show his hands were no longer stained. She calmed him when a noise would startle him, approaching him slowly aware that he believed himself back on the front lines, even teaching Stefan how to behave when he saw what this war was doing to his brother. And so the cycle would continue with each leave he took.

* * *

It was early September of 1864, when a young brunette arrived at the Main Salvatore estate. Damon fingers twirling a piece of his wife's hair from behind his father and brother without a care for the new arrival. He sympathized and even pitied the girl for having lost her family so young but it did not change the fact that he had but a couple days more with his wife before he was due back in the field and would be receiving his promotion from Captain to Major.


	19. Chapter 19: Remembrance-Amaryllis 3 of 3

**A/N: Non-con and rape of a compelled Damon. Non-graphic but revealing of Damon being aware it is not his choice.**

* * *

Katherine Pierce was a beautiful girl, of that Amaryllis was positive but there was something about the Pierce girl that set her on edge. She felt as though she was as though she was looking upon death when faced with the her. She did not understand this feeling but she did understand the other she felt when looking upon her, hatred. She hated Katherine Pierce and she did not know why. It felt as though she had committed some grand sin against her and yet the girl had only arrived days before. Perhaps, it was the way looked at Stefan but glance at Damon, her husband, when she believed no one would notice. Damon assured her that while the young Miss Pierce maybe somewhat pleasing to the eye his heart was already held by one she could never even hope to be. Damon was to have left to the front lines and yet, the day after he set off he returned, deserting his post.

* * *

He did not understand. He knew his love belonged to his wife. Yet how was it that Katherine Pierce had come to be in his bed? He struggled as he remembered rejecting her advancement. He had told her that while flattered, though he truly was not, he was a wed man. A happily wed man and no other would ever take his wife's place. He remembered the furious glint in her eyes and thinking that he had finally seen the true her, the her that was what made his wife so uneasy. He remembered telling his snowflake of the occurrence before he left for his ride back to the front and then there she was that night as he made camp. He had been furious that the silly girl had followed him. He told her to leave or he would insure all knew of the harlot she was.

Except, she looked him straight in the eyes and when she spoke, it was as if he could do not but what she commanded. She commanded he strip, and he did. She commanded he lay with her on the blanket, one which his loving wife had crafted him and ensured he took with him after he told her of the long cold nights without her, and he did. Only, when her hands touched him his body recoiled with disgust. He remained limp at her touch, angering her further. She commanded he bed her and he did, tears falling as he did until she commanded he enjoy it, and he did.

He knew though that he did not. He knew that he had hated every second. His lower body was soiled with her fluids and while he could not physically he wept for his body's betrayal. He wept at his betrayal against his wife. He wept all while locked within his mind watching as his body acted upon her command. It was his wife who noticed his change after he returned home, having abandoned his post. She had begged him to speak with her but his tongue was silent as he screamed for her. He screamed and he wept watching as his wife pleaded his return to the man he was. He could feel the devil woman's hold breaking and there would be moments in which he could respond. Moments in which he would make his way to his wife and plead for forgiveness, plead for understanding for he knew not how it happened. She questioned him not knowing what he was saying but somehow she would always arrive before he could.

The demon walked hand in hand laughing with his little brother, the last piece he had of his mother. She would send him off for a drink and then she would meet his wife's eyes and command her. She would command she grab the nearest sharp object and for her to place it at her throat before turning to him. She warned him that should he continue to attempt to break free of her control however it was he did she would have his wife kill herself and when he agreed she commanded her to forget her commands. And so days passed and soon enough the end of September began approaching. He was but a slave to the devil woman that demanded he tell her all the words of love and affection that was held by his wife and to gift them to her.

She commanded he treat her in the way he had his wife before her arrival and his wife the way he wished to with her. And so it began. He called her cruel names, tearing apart her character. He left their home moving back into the room of his boyhood. His greatest shame however was when the one and only time he laid his hands upon his wife. Horrified as he was by his body's actions he was proud as she fought back to free herself of him before running to the safety of her father and brother.

* * *

She had had enough. She did not know what was happening with her husband but she knew it could all be traced back to one thing. The day Katherine Pierce had arrived in Mystic Falls, was the day everything had begun to change. Damon and Stefan fought near constantly now. Her family furious at her treatment by the eldest Salvatore who they had considered one of their own. Her marriage was nearly in shambles. She could not believe that this was her Damon. There had been no warning to this aggressive behavior he held toward her. There was no reason for him to act in such a manner. And worse yet there were lapses in her memory. She did not notice it at first but there were moments when Damon would ramble on with apologies kneeled in front of her and then suddenly he would be standing several feet away from where she had been or even she herself being in a different spot. She had ignored it at first but as it came about more and more as she tried to learn where all had gone wrong.

* * *

Amaryllis began putting pieces together and so she went to her father and told him of her suspicions. She told him how somehow, everything in her life seemed to just fall apart and yet seemingly almost too perfectly into Miss Pierce's lap. She told him of overhearing Damon call the girl like he did herself not a month earlier. She spoke of her lapses in memory and how Damon or even herself would be in a different location after the lapse and even how sometimes a vase would be broken, or her fingers bleeding as though something had cut her. She told her father of noticing how the girl had seemingly burned herself when she had come in contact with the wildflower, Vervain, she had been sporadically planting within the gardens after having used them for her wedding bouquet. Her father tensed and warned her to stay away from the girl then before mumbling of how he should have noticed the signs. She questioned him but he would not answer but to tell her that all would be well again soon.

She did not understand how that could possibly be but as her stomach lurched and she expelled her lunch she could not ask. Her father demanded a doctor be brought as he met with the council promising that when he returned she would be safe again and hopefully Damon would begin to return to himself. With the arrival of the doctor came questions. Questions, she herself should have considered but had not with all that was occurring. Had she been expelling her food regularly, in the wee bits of the morning? Did the smell of foods she had enjoyed before make her do so, as well? When had she last bled? As the last came about she thought hard, realizing what the doctor meant as she came to the conclusion that her last bleed had not come since Damon had first returned home in late July. Her heart soared at the thought of having a child filling with more love than she had ever known it could hold. With the knowledge of the babe growing in her belly, she came to her final decision. Damon would either stand by her and this child or their marriage would end. She would not risk her babe. She called upon her brother and begged her to take her to him. That she would have either have her little family or she would have her closure and be able to move on with no questions of what ifs.

* * *

They had met Damon as he was leaving their shared home Katherine exiting behind him in one of her dresses. Her heart clenched, knowing what must have occurred in what had been their home. He questioned her telling her that this was his home and his land. He told her that he planned on having Katherine for his wife once he their marriage was annulled for her infertility. She had sobbingly laughed as she told him that he could not only to be questioned and she met his eyes noticing the dull glaze. "My fertility is of no issue. I carry our first child within my belly now." She saw his eyes spark, coming alive. His hands began to twitch before reaching up to grasp upon his hair. He seemed to be fighting at himself.

"₋ₒₗ"

.

.

.

.

"⁻⁻ᵒⁿ⁻⁻⁻ⁿᵍ ⁻⁻ᵉᵉ"

.

.

"⁻⁻ᵉˢ ᶜᵒⁿ⁻⁻ ⁻⁻⁻ˡᶦⁿᵍ ⁻⁻ⁿᵉᵉᵉ"

.

.

.

****"SʜE CᴏNᴛRᴏLɪNɢ MᴇEᴇE!"****

.

Katherine's face broke in a furious hiss, her face changing.

"Vampire!" James snarled reaching into his coat as Katherine sped in front of him and threw him into a tree.

"JAMES!" Katherine grabbed her by the arms forcing her to look into her eyes.

"Do not fight and follow me. Do not scream for help." Before turning to Damon. "Come."

The sun was setting when they reached a cliff overlooking a lake. The wind had picked up and the clouds were rolling in when Katherine turned to face them again. "Stand there and do nothing but watch." She demanded of him before locking eyes with Amaryllis. "Why couldn't you just give up? He was finally starting to give in."

"You may have had control but I have his heart. So long as I draw breath, so long as my soul walks with earth. You will never have him."

"Well, it's a good thing you will not be breathing or do any walking for much longer." Katherine smiled at her cruelly. "Walk to the edge and while you do you, beg him. Beg your husband to save you. When you can walk no further, I want you to turn around and do what I command next."

She could not control her body as it walked to the cliff edge and begged her husband, her Damon, for she knew now she had been under the same curse she was now to help her. She pleaded tears in her eyes as her hands came up grasping at the material over her belly. She wondered of what could have been for she knew Katherine would not let her live. She knew now that all those times Damon begged her forgiveness, he must have broken free of her and tried to tell her what was happening but found himself unable to speak further then his apologies. She knew those small lapses in her memory must have been her doing. As she reached the edge and began to turn she realized she had stopped speaking "Damon." She could control her speech. "Damon, it is ok. I don't blame you, never."

"Fall." She turned to Damon. "I warned you. Now, You love only me."

"I love you." She said a tear slipping from the corner of her eye as she felt her body lean back.

* * *

And so, it was as dark clouds filled the sky that 25th of September in the year of 1864 that Amaryllis Salvatore died.


	20. Chapter 20: Awakening & The Surprise

****A/N: Just wanted to get this part out, while it was on my mind.****

* * *

"Damon." I gasped, immediately sitting up causing the room to spin about me. My head pounding at the influx of memories filling my mind.

"Damon?" Matt.

"You're mate?" Jenna.

"Did he do something?" Jeremy.

"Did something happen?" Vicki.

"Yes. Yes. No. And a lot." My eyes closed as I took a deep breath. "The picture and drawings. They . . . they made me remember."

"Remember what?" Jeremy asked.

"My life. Or lives, before this one. When I was Amina Jones and a century before that Amaryllis Salvatore, . . .Damon's wife."

"What!" they yelled.

"Magic. I think someone used magic on me."

"But I thought no one's magic could affect you but your own?" Vicki questioned

"No, magic still affects me it just can't be used to control me, making me do things I normally wouldn't. I think it happened before my change though." _Maybe even before I woke up in this world._ "Jeremy help me up, please"

It was as he did so that I noticed the weight around my neck. I felt the coolness of a chain around my neck and some sort of charm laying between my breast. I pulled it out only to find the very necklace Samuel Bennet had gifted me. The necklace I had worn when I died as Amaryllis Salvatore.

"Umm, no offense but. . . is it just my imagination or was that dress looser around the middle before?" Vicki spoke up hesitantly, her eyes focused on my stomach. My hand moved to feel it and I froze.

"Mom?" Jeremy spoke, his voice tight and brows furrowed. "Is there something you need to tell us?" But my breath was heavy, coming in rasps.

"Ames, sit down." Jenna moved to grab my arm pulling me back onto the sofa. "Breathe honey. Big breath in . . . out. In. . . out. In . . . and out." My breathing calmed and my mind raced to find an answer when suddenly the words of Samuel Bennet flowed through my mind. And I lifted the pendant up to my view.

. . ._Capable of holding great power . . . ._ _It is said that the holder of that specific stone could always reunite the owner with whomever they loved most._

Whomever they love most. I loved Damon absolutely at the moment of my death as Amaryllis but I was willing to give him up, to let him go for my baby if he could not treat me with the respect and love I had come to expect to be shared in our marriage. My baby held my heart the moment I'd learned of the pregnancy. I may have known of the baby I was carrying for less then 24 hours but did that truly matter?

The baby was my miracle. My little love, growing within me. It didn't matter. No matter how short the time was, it was just that. _My mother of that life had always said there was no greater love then that of a mother. She was right because within seconds my love for this baby had surpassed any I'd ever experienced before._ I hadn't given a thought to what people would say about me. Not a thought for how I would be viewed should I be the one to seek a divorce if Damon did not treat me right. All I cared for, all I wanted was for my baby to grow up safe, in a loving home. And while I wanted him to be there, whether Damon was or not, it didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. All that mattered was my child.

"I'm pregnant, with the same baby I died carrying in 1864. Think he'll understand I'm pregnant with his baby from when we were both human, over a hundred years ago, after being reborn and him turned into a vampire?" I broke out with laughter at the ridiculousness that was becoming my laugh only for it to become a broken mess of sobs as the emotions of my past lives and the violence of my deaths came to mind.


	21. Chapter 21: Talk Pt 2

****Salvatore House****

"Hello, little brother" Damon said watching as Stefan walked in from his latest meet with Katherine's double. He'd kept silent when they were 'friends' figuring it would be a good way to insure she didn't hurt Amelia but now he'd gone to far. He saw them earlier that day, Stefan kissing the double of his wife's murderer. How Stefan could even stand to look at Elena and not want to rip her apart he didn't know but whatever he was doing with her, it was ending now. "Back from casa de Gilbert?" He asked watching as he froze.

"I already told you Damon we're friends. She had nothing to do with what happened to Amy. It's been 145 years, why can't you let it go?"

He launched at him, grabbing him by the neck and slamming him into the wall. He knew his fangs had come out. "Let it go?" his voice bordered on hysterical. He could hear Zach's heartbeat at the top of the stairs, as he watched them. "She was the love of my life. My wife! And you want to know why I won't just let it go?" He scoffed dropping Stefan. "I won't let it go because she made me watch as she compelled her to beg me as she walked to the edge of the cliff and fell. I won't let it go because it isn't just Amaryllis I lost that day."

"I know I killed father." Stefan's voice held a tone of guilt as I let out a broken laugh.

"Father? I don't give a damn about that man! Amy was pregnant! She was carrying our baby and Katherine killed her!" Stefan's face showed his shock and I could hear Zach's own heartbeat increasing as he took in my words and anger. "And here you are" He paused lifting his arms, hands palm side up. "Kissing a replica of their murderer." Stefan eyes were filled with tears as he grabbed onto me, pulling me into a hug.

"Get off of me." He demanded, pushing him away. "The only thing I want when it comes to you, is for you to keep that bitch the hell away from anything that has to do with us." He watched as Stefan's eyes cleared and he saw the defiance in them.

"Damon, I know they look alike but they're different people. Elena's kind and sh-"

"She's nothing but trouble."

"You've never even met her!"

"Yes, actually, I have." I smirked giving his shoulders a squeeze. "And there's a lot you don't know about her. So I'm warning you now Stefan. End it with her or else." I moved to walk back to my room only to feel Stefan hands at my head before everything went dark.

* * *

****Just Outside****

****~Amelia's POV~****

The time it took to get to the Salvatore's seemed to be shorter then it should have, especially considering that I had taken my time getting changed from the dress I'd worn earlier due to it being uncomfortable as it stretched tightly over the tiny baby bump. Maybe it was just my own nervousness as I was still unsure of how to say what I needed to. As I parked the car and went to the door I was greeted by a familiar face storming out and slamming the door behind him. "Hello Stefan." My eyes filled with tears.

"Amy?" He whispered as his eyes teared as he looked at me. I opened my arms for the boy I had played with as a little girl. The boy that had become my little brother, only I suppose he wasn't really so little anymore what with him living as a vampire all this time. He broke into sobs the moment he was in my arms, my own joining his.

The door opened and there he was. He looked at my tears and Stefan wrapped in my arms and his face blanked. "Am I interrupting something? My bad."

I let Stefan go, and walked up to him. "Don't do that, Damon."

"Is there something I can help you with Amelia? Or is my brother helping you?" His eyes glanced to Stefan with a cold glint.

"Amelia?" Stefan's voice was filled with confusion and hesitance.

"I think the three of us really should talk." I looked up at Damon my eyes pleading for him not to argue and his eyes softened as he moved to the side and waved his arm with a flourish. I could feel Stefan's gaze on me as I walked in without an invitation. "Before you ask Stefan, no. No, I'm not like Elena and that bitch Katherine, not at all." They froze as I sat on the parlor sofa.


	22. Chapter 22:Explanations & Verbal Bashing

****~Damon's POV~****

"Look at me, Damon. Really, look at me." She told me and so I did. I took in her features from top to bottom but it was when I looked up again that I saw what she meant. The necklace Amaryllis had worn everyday since it was gifted, the very one that had disappeared from his wife's body, was around her neck. But that wasn't all because the moment I looked at her eyes, I knew.

"Snowflake?" I said breathless and she smiled.

"Prince of the Woods." At hearing the title, we'd kept secret, that she'd given me as children I couldn't stop myself from grabbing hold and kissing her. The taste of her lips was just as I remembered, vanilla and the sweetness of mulberries.

"How is this possible? Did Stefan kill me after he snapped my neck and this is heaven? No, Stefan's here so that's out considering being near his is hell on its own. How are you alive?" I pulled her by the hand to sit in my lap not willing to let her go.

"Magic." she said with a short breathless laugh, her hand brought mine to her stomach and my eyes widened. The stomach I knew had been flat this morning thanks to her dress was now curved. "It was the moonstone. Samuel Bennett said that it could always reunite it's owner with whoever they love most. It brought our baby back when I remembered."

He couldn't believe it, but with only silence at the moment he could pick up the heartbeats coming from inside her but as he listened closely his brows furrowed. "Three."

"What?" She looked up at me.

"I can hear three hearts beating. The loudest is slower then the other two. That's yours." I looked into her eyes. "Twins?" A crash came from the doorway and I stiffened, I'd been so focused on having her back that I forgot, Zach had been listening in this whole time.

"Don't." She said having noticed and I forced myself to relax only to stiffen when she got up and walked towards him. Zach staring at her with an emotion he didn't care for at all. "Zach. It's been awhile."

"I-"

"Zach, it's time." I watched as Zach's eyes went wide and filled with more joy then I'd ever seen in him.

"Time for what?" Zach looked at Stefan and then me briefly before turning back to her without a care, irritating me even more.

"You're sure?" she nodded at him a small smile on her face. "I'll grab the papers." He ran upstairs and I looked at her.

"Papers?" Stefan asked as I asked my own.

"How do you know Zach? And why the hell was he looking at you like that?"

"I grew up here, Damon. Again." She turned to face me and Stefan. "He looks at me the way he does because I saved his wife and daughter."

"Zach is married?/What?"

"She's around Jeremy's age."

"Jeremy? Elena's brother?"

"Yes, he's my nephew." Stefan's eye went wide as he stared at her.

"Damon called you Amelia when we were outside."

"It's my name, this time around."

"You're the aunt Elena told me was always getting her in trouble because you hate her." The two of us scoffed.

"I told you the double is trouble./Elena gets herself in trouble." The two of us met eyes and smiled. Stefan ignored me but stared at her, his eyes showing his confliction.

"Look, Stefan. I know you probably don't want to hear it but I'm going to say it anyways." She said as she stared him down. "Elena's mother, Miranda gave her everything and would let her get away with anything. Elena's spoiled and manipulative and selfish. She has this idea that the world should bow to her and when it doesn't she uses anything and anyone to get rid of whatever's in her way, without considering the consequences." Stefan shook his head at her from his seat on the couch.

"No, she told me everything. Even about how you stole Matt from her just because you could. You're jealous."

"Matt?/Who's Matt?" She laughed out the name while I asked. Her eyes flickered to me before returning to Stefan.

"I'm related to Matt. Distantly but we are still cousins even if their great-grandfather was disinherited. Matt and his sister Vicki along with Jeremy are practically my children." She looked at him in disbelief, as he looked at her in shock. _Looks like Elena's lies were going to catch up to her sooner then she might have thought_. He thought, a smirk growing on his face. _Wait, if they're basically hers, doesn't that mean? Shit_. "While Miranda was off with Elena, I was the one taking care of Jeremy despite the fact that physically, I'm only six years older then him!" I could see the anger burning in her eyes. "As for Matt and Vicki. After they're mother up and abandoned them for her latest boy-toy they moved into my house." Her eyes were like ice as she glared at Stefan. _So hot_. "I let him and his sister move into Maxwell Manor after it was finished being renovated when they found out they had to either pay for their tiny apartment or were going to be kicked out. They're my family but I guess that doesn't mean jack because as Elena said I stole him from her." She put a sweet smile on her. "And what Elena say, is always right. Isn't it, little brother?"

Stefan watched as she walked out of the room before putting his head in his hands and I walked to his side. "You going to tell me 'I told you so'?" He looked up at me.

"No. I'm pretty sure I'm already doing that in your head and will for awhile. You beautiful moron." I looked at him with a smirk and raised my brows before following after my wife. _I have got to find out about those kids we apparently adopted. Shit, we're not married as far as the rest of the world is concerned Oh well, I'll just have to propose again_.


	23. Chapter 23: All Out

Zack was already standing at the top of the stairs with several bags when she left the parlor. She gave him a sad smile as he walked down and led her into the kitchen, paper in hand. It was when they were nearly finished that Damon walked in causing Zack to stiffen.

"So, papers?" He said leaning against the doorway.

"Transfer of the deed." Damon stiffened at Zach's words.

"I agreed to take the boarding house off his hands when it was safe for him to go to his family and make sure he was paid well for it."

"This is the Salvatore Boarding House."

"Yes, and?" She looked up and paused from signing her name on the last line that would signify the change of ownership.

"You're not a Salvatore, technically." He said and before she could get say anything in response he spoke again with a smirk. "We should fix that."

"Excuse me?" She raised a brow at him, watching as he moved towards her.

"I know I'm not being particularly romantic b-"

"You mean at all?" she said sarcastically.

He chuckled. "Okay, I'm not being romantic at all but I love you. Whether your name is Amelia or Amaryllis, you are the only woman I want. You were the love of my life from the time I was a human boy wondering the woods to the moment I died. The moment I woke to this existence you were the woman I had loved and lost, the woman that haunted my every dream, the woman that despite all those I fucked I could not forget, the woman I compared every other to and would find them lacking against every time. I spent over a hundred years wanting and waiting for revenge on the one who took you from me. I don't want to spend another minute on this world without you. You are everything I ever have and will even want. It doesn't matter how much time has passed, I love you and I'm hoping that maybe if you could forgive me for everything I've done since Katherine came and ruined what should have been our life together that we can start where we left off." He looked at me with so much hope and love it made me tear up.

"Oh, Damon . . .no." His face dropped and I quickly grabbed hold of him before he could turn to leave. "To go back is impossible. Neither of us are the same people we were then. But," He lifted his eyes to meet mine a small glimmer of hope returning. "But if you are willing to know me as I am right now and for me to know you, the real you, not the one you think I'll want then I will go down to city hall and marry you again, tomorrow." He smiles at her.

" I take you as my wife for who you are, who you have been, and who you are yet to be." He said to her repeating his vow to her.

"I accept you for your faults and your strengths, as you do my own. I will always choose you." She repeated her own.

"I love you."

"Today and always." He cupped her cheeks in his hands and they kissed.

* * *

"You'll be safe won't you?" Zack said still slightly worried despite the way he'd seen Damon react to her. Amelia had done her best to explain and while he understood she had lived a life with him before this he had trouble imagining the Damon she described. He just couldn't see the two but with every passing minute it was becoming clearer. He wondered if all this time he had been wrong. Had Stefan been the dangerous brother that simply drove his brother to such extremes because he was the reason Damon lost his own Gail? Had Damon just been living out his depression after the loss of his wife? He tried to imagine himself losing Gail and Sarah in a similar way and realized he would have never been the same.

"I promise, Zach. You just get home to your family. I'll send anything you left." They hugged once more before he got in his car and drove away.

"So you mentioned basically having kids. So I guess that means I have some rugrats to meet." She bumped him with her hip.

"They aren't rugrats. But yes you do . . . daddy." She gave a flirty smile before she ran back inside with him at her heel.

* * *

"When can I meet them?" He said leading her to his or rather, hopefully he thought, their bedroom.

"How about after they get out of school tomorrow? I think if we waited any longer than that they might show up at the front door." She paused and sighed before looking at him. "They still might do that come morning."

"They're protective"

"Extremely"

"That's good." He says with a smile and she looks at his as if to say 'Are you crazy?'

"How is that good?"

"They love you." He turns to look at her. "It proves what I always said was true, you make an amazing mother." She looked away with slightly pinkened cheeks.

"So I understand how the babies are here."

"Mhmm." She hummed her agreement as she glanced at him from the window as he sat on the bed.

"How are you?"

"Death"

"I know y-"

"No, I mean Death. Death is a real . . . being." She said not sure how to exactly refer to Death.

"A being? What do you mean?"

"I died and I met Death and she remade me into one of her creations that had died out."

"She? What did she change you into? You're not a vampire."

"Vampires while technically falling under her as the undead were a witch's creation."

"The ones that are always 'You're an abomination against nature' of the world are the reason vampires exist? Damn, I'm throwing that in the face of the next little judgy Sabrina I meet."

She rolled her eyes. "Death had sympathized with a woman who had died after being, violated." Damon looked at her. "A witch had used a spell on her, one similar to compulsion. She knew what was happening but could only do as she was told. He used it to rape her again and again. When the village discovered them he said she had cast a spell on him, forcing him to lay with her. She was burnt at the stake within minutes. Still naked, with his . . . dripping down her thighs." Damon moved to her side.

"Amy?" He asked worried.

"A few days after I changed I got her memory of it. I don't have the emotions for it and it's not as though it happened to me it's more like viewing it though a third parties eyes. Almost as if there was someone watching it all happen but there wasn't. Am I making sense?"

"Yea." He wrapped her in his arms leading her to the bed to sit.

"Death had never really noticed it but it was so fresh in her mind and had been her only thought as she died and even in her own death that she appeared that way in front of Death. She had wanted to know why she appeared that way and had allowed her to feel her pain as she watched her memories. Death turned what was used against her into her power."

"Her power?"

"A being that couldn't be forced into intimacy but rather fed on it. One that couldn't be violated but could seek revenge for those that were. The very act, the energy we can feel if it's willing or forced and we can suck that very aura out without touch. We feed off it. Or at least that what the original version of my race were supposed to be. They were supposed to be protectors but looked for ways to use what they could do for revenge instead. They used it to lure men to them and use them as they were used."

"You're talking about succubus?" She nods.

"Witches started hunting them. They found out they could use our body parts for fertility magics. Beauty enhancements. Magic to extend their own lives or make them young again. Funny thing is the ones they killed first were those that lived in peace. The ones who had found their mates and had settled into lives with them only using their abilities to protect others from being hurt the way they were."

"If they died out then? Will they start hunting you?" Damon stiffened as he thought of it, trying to think of ways to keep her safe.

"How am I one? I don't know but I do know that Death made me differently then them. I'm not designed to protect or avenge those that feel my pain but to find my mates and be able to protect them and anyone that comes along. I'm immortal unless I choose not to be."

"Why would anyone ever choose not to be?"

"If their mate doesn't want to live forever. If they don't." She looks at him "Our lives are tied into the existence of our mates now. We live for them and even when we die we revive for them at least so long as certain conditions have been met and certain parts haven't been destroyed. Even then it's only those of us who choose immortality after bonding to our mates that have that ability and only the strongest of us at that." I go on to explain the rest to him. My abilities and changes. The stages of bonding. Damon nods taking in everything.

"So, a succubus?"

"Yep."

"Ok." his brows furrow as he takes a breath and thinks everything over.


	24. Chapter 24: Learning & Intimacy

**A/N: First sorta Lemon after the line break to end. Didn't do too much of it but let me know what you think since it was my first try at it but I also don't want them to simply jump straight to it. I sorta see Damon becoming one of those hover husbands when it comes to their wife and first kid especially after everything that he's been through. We've all seen how he was with the look-alike in TVD even before they got together, so I don't think it's much of a stretch. I'm definitely thinking of writing that in but let me know what you guys think of an over-protective daddy Damon. If enough people say no I might not do it. (But I really want to so it probably won't matter if you don't want it!)**

"I have a question" Damon was hesitant but asked after the thought popped into his head.

"Yes."

"How? How have you been able to . . . eat?" His face scrunches in anger.

"Sexual energy feeds me and in this town there's enough people who have sexual fantasies regarding me that I don't need to actually be with someone to feed."

"They what?" His face vamps out.

"Damon, it's a good thing."

"How is that a good thing? There are men thinking of being with my wife!"

"And women!" I say with a small smile but the furious look he gives makes me sigh. "It's a good thing because otherwise I'd be slowly withering away and not in the starving vamp way that just needs some blood and all better! My body would need to heal the human way from that and the only way to have stopped it would be to . . . be with someone." He stills not breathing at all before sighing.

"I . . . I see your point. I still don't like it."

"I don't like starving and to be honest despite the auras and energy I take in, I'm so hungry!" Her voice pitches in a mixture of desperation and agony. "I told the kids that I was fine but in all honesty it's like I've been living off of nothing but tofu the past few years." Her eyes glassy with tears as she holds her stomach. Damon instantly moves to her side and takes her into his arms, worried.

"Why haven't you?" His voice was strained the very thought of it, her being with someone else ripping at him despite knowing that he had no real say in the matter considering his own time away from her since her death.

"Elijah" She almost whispered the name too light for even him to catch.

"Who is Elijah?" His heart clenches at the thought that there may be someone else despite not having seen anyone. After all, in today's age you didn't necessarily have to live in the same city, state, hell the same continent to have a relationship with someone.

"He's my other mate. I'm the first and technically, queen of my race." She looks at him with a sad smile. "I'm too powerful for a single mate to ground me." He wasn't sure how to take it.

"Wait. Other mate? If he's one then the other is?" He looks down at her.

"You, of course. I met Elijah during my time in New York. He's, well, he's an Original."

"Original? Original what? Backstreet boy?" He asks getting a giggle out of her.

"Vampire. He's one of the first, him and his siblings are where all of today's vampires come from. If one of them were to die" she takes a breath. "so would their entire line. Everyone ever turned going back to that Original would die." Damon froze as he took in what she said.

"Are you sure?" The thought of his life being tied to another vampire's in such a way was horrifying. What if they were staked? What if they decided to just walk into the sun one day cause they were bored of it all?

"Damon, stop worrying. Originals can survive being staked. Hell, they can compel other vampires!"

"What!"

"Damnit. I was trying to call you down not freak you out! Look, the same rules apply for them. They can't enter a living person's house without an invitation. They need spelled lapiz lapzuli to walk in the sun. They can't compel anyone who is on vervain, which reminds me that we're getting you on it."

"You realize what vervain does to me, don't you?" He ask with a slight hint of fear in his eyes. She pats his cheek.

* * *

"We'll start slow. Think of it as, S&M. I'm slowly torturing you." her fingers trail down his neck and start to slowly unbutton his shirt." Trailing a vervain leaf down your chest so you feel it's burn." Her nails bite into his flesh as she moves them down his chest and he hisses. "It burns but feels good, doesn't it?" she whispers at his ear and he groans in agreement as she continues. She reaches into her shirt and he sees her finger at the edge of lacy red before she pulls out something that fits between her fingers and brings it to her mouth, placing it on her tongue. "The mix of pain and pleasure will be absolutely, intoxicating."

She kisses him and soon enough he is pushing her back and begging for entrance. His tongue touches hers and he feels a light heat burning at him but keeps going The heat only makes him want her more. He reaches for her shirt tearing at it before his hands move on to her jeans. Soon enough he has her stripped down to nothing but her lacy red bra and matching cheeksters. He leans off her and undresses himself, vamp speed. Unable to help himself he finds himself between her legs, bending her knees. He wonders if she'll taste the same here as well. They had been adventurous for their time, not caring for how they were to simply lay in bed with him atop of her and be done with it. No, even then they had wanted more from each other. Even to this day she was the only woman he had tasted.

Katherine despite her actions would either force him to take her as she laid back or would ride him herself. She was a bore in bed, likely sticking to the time period in which she was raised. It was the one thing concerning her he was actually grateful for. The only thing she hadn't been able to touch and ruin. Something he even after all these years did not allow anyone else to do despite the uncountable number of women he'd taken all these years.

The positions he'd held his wife in, the way he'd take her on all fours burying himself to the hilt as he spent himself within her, the way his tongue had dipped into her core licking at her juices as though he was a man dying of thirst, the way her own had wrapped around him as she sucked him to completion before climbing atop him and burying him inside her as he turned them over and brought her legs onto his shoulders to enter her deeper. How he had slept buried within her. Spending warm nights under the stars beneath their willow tree as he took her and claimed God himself had blessed their marriage as he pounded into her as she kneeled, as she laid at her side, as he laid on his back, standing as he held her in his arms lifting and dropping her upon him, and even as he sat with his back against the willow and the bark scratched at him as she bounced upon his lap both facing him and not.

The memories of their love-making was too much and he ripped the red lace from her lower body, burying his tongue in her. He heard as she gasped and moaned. His nose pressing at her nub while his tongue traced her within and his hands grasped her hips holding them down as she writhed the closer she came to release. It was clear her body had been untouched by another man for years. Her taste was just as he remembered, like the sweetest and juiciest of strawberries. He could not help himself as he took in every bit he could, it had been far too long since he had felt such happiness. He hadn't realized just how much he had truly missed the very act of tasting the woman he loved. What had once been a daily intimacy done had completely disappeared from his life and forbidden, until now. As she released she raised her hand muffling her scream of pleasure as her walls pulsed against his tongue.


	25. Chapter 25: Walking Talking Hormones

"Hi welcome to Mystic Falls, home to some of the most annoying people of all time. I'm looking for my mom." The brunette pushed past him, letting herself into his home.

"Excuse you, but who are you. Why would she be here? And who even is your mother?" Damon said following the girl as she went into the parlor calling for her mother. _Hold it together, Damon. She's just a human, not a threat to your wife and children . . . yet. Just remember Amelia will probably skin us if we start trouble. God she's beautiful when pissed._

"I'm Vicki. Where is she?" The brunette glared at him and he heard the door open.

"Vicki is she here?/Mom!" He turned to find two teenage boys coming in.

"I seriously have to start locking that thing. Who are you kids!"

"I'm Matt/ Jeremy."

"I was being sarca-wait Matt and Jeremy? And Vicki, which is short for Victoria." He turned around and looked at the girl again and noticed the shape of her eyes and nose, the exact shade of green that was once his best friends, and he knew. "You're them. She wasn't kidding, I'm really a father to three walking, talking bags of hormones. I'm being punished."

"No one is punishing you, Damon." Came her amused voice as she walked into the parlor.

"They're walking talking bags of hormones! You have to be punishing me!"

"Hey!/I resemble that!" came from the two boys.

"Well, I don't and if this prick calls me it again my foots gonna find itself in a land the sun hasn't ever shined before."

"You might as well get used to it." She placed a hand on her stomach. "After the diapers and crying their hormones will kick in eventually too. Be happy those two are almost done and Vicki no foot in the ass of my twins' daddy."

"Twins!"

"Are you guys on that? We knew she was pregnant! How about focusing on the fact he called himself our father?"

"Yea, what's with that?"

"Mom?" Jeremy moved to her side, watching Damon with narrowed eyes.

"It's alright Jere. How about I run to the store and make something for us to snack on while you three get to know Damon. Vicki, sweetie. Stop glaring." Vicky turned away from Damon and smiled at her, giving a nod. She glared again the moment her back was turned, the boys joining in before removing them when she turned back. "I'll make your favorites. Peanut-butter filled chocolate cupcakes for Vicki, chunky chocolate chip cookies for Matt, and pumpkin oatmeal for my Jere-bear."

"What about me?" Damon asked after watching how the three had lit up after she mentioned their favorite desserts.

"How about bourbon pecan pie cookies?"

"Bourbon?" She laughed.

"I'll be back in a bit." She grabbed her purse and walked out the door. The moment she was out of sight a terrible feeling of doom rose. He turned his head to see all three teens stood together staring him down.

"Amy! Amelia!" He ran out the door only to see her already driving away. He turned to see they followed him, smirks on their lips. "Shit."

* * *

"So Damon Salvatore, what are your intentions with our mother?" All three asked together simultaneously as he sat on the chair in front of them. All three sat on the couch, head just slightly tilted. _Its like a horror film, though it would have been worse if they were actually little kids doing it_. He shivered at the thought. He cleared his throat and answered

"Look, I understand you three have had her to yourselves for awhile now and I promise I'm not here to take her away. I'm just going to be joining in on your family."

"Damon!" Stefan sounded pissed as he slammed the front door and walked in only to pause when he saw them. "Damon?"

"Correction. Me and my brother will be joining your family."

"What?" Stefan looked at him utterly confused.

"Stefan meet Jeremy, Victoria, and Matt. My soon to be step-kids? Did she actually adopt you or is that something we need to add onto the list along with planning the wedding?"

"WEDDING!"

"I asked Amelia to marry me?" Damon said almost nervous at their reaction knowing how important they were to Amelia.

"Why didn't you just say that from the start?" Jeremy asked

"Yea, man. We wouldn't give you a hard time if you're serious and plan on treating Mom right. You do plan on treating her right, don't you?" Matt's voice had started friendly but gone cold the next.

"Of course, I do!" He blinked at the sudden camera flash and turned to Vicki.

"I hope so, otherwise I'm posting this pic on a herpes website." She smiled at him sweetly.

"I'm gonna have to be careful around you, aren't I?"

"No idea what you mean, fang-daddy." She said while the other two leaned back and nodded their heads frantically.

"Right. So why did you come in here screaming?" He quickly looked at Stefan and found him still standing at the doorway wide-eyed.

"Girl was killed last night." He said distractedly, unable to comprehend what he had just walked into, before snapping out of it. "An animal attack, know anything about it?" His voice hardened as he narrowed his eyes at Damon.

"Seriously? I haven't attacked anyone since the night I first got here. It probably was an animal attack there are these things called woods here in Mystic Falls." Stefan's face was skeptical. "You can ask Amelia. I was with her last night and I didn't leave."

"Ew."


	26. Ch 26: Stefan Problems & Family Cuteness

"Stop looking at Damon as if he is the reason that anything and everything goes wrong. He wasn't the reason then and he isn't the reason now." She said as she put the last batch in the oven and set the timer.

"I knew you would throw that in my face. I trusted Katherine when you said to stay away from her, I know that! What do you want me to say? She compelled me!" Amelia's hand flew slapping him across the face as he screamed at her.

"She compelled you to accept what she was and not to tell anyone about the two of you sleeping together. She didn't compel you to do anything else. I know she didn't because Katherine may have compelled me back then and even had her little Bennett witch do the same but I had a Bennett of my own and I remember everything now. You chose Katherine over our family with your own free will. You chose some bitch you didn't even know for a month over your own brother. A brother that shielded you from your father's abuse!" She yelled at him, not giving him a moment to try to excuse himself. "Nothing you say can justify that, Stefan! And here we are again with you repeating the exact same thing and choosing that whore's doppelganger over family. What does it say about you Stefan that you know damn near every word out her mouth has been a lie? Yet here you are defending her to the very person she lied the most to you about. Someone you once called a sister." She turned away from him, disgusted at the young man that was once the boy she had thought of as another brother. "I think you should go and think for awhile, Stefan. Damon and I have a wedding to discuss and adoption papers to fill out."

* * *

"What are we going to tell everyone? About how we met? I mean we can't say we grew up together considering I grew up here and everything."

"Could always say we knew each other in another life?" Damon jokes and she hits his shoulder playfully.

"Come on Damon. Be serious. I know you can." She says smiling as she tickles at his sides making him jump.

"We met while you were in New York. I saw you dancing one night at a party and couldn't take my eyes off you. Asked you to dance and history from there."

"First date?"

"Why change it? A picnic under the stars after sneaking out." He looks at her with that infectious smile. "What about the wedding?"

"Small and private. Last time around it was practically a town event." Damon chuckles at that.

"Alright, so small and private but it still has to be elaborate. Nothing but the best for you."

"I don't need the best, Damon. I just want you." She says pressing a kiss to his lips.

"I want you to have the best. This time it won't be about our parents and building this grand union. This time it'll be about us. What about a dress?"

"I'm going to wear my mom's old dress, it just need a few small alterations."

"Are you sure you don't want to find your own or have one made?"

"Takes to long to have one custom made and besides I already know exactly what alterations I want to make."

* * *

"Jeremy come sit with me. I need to talk to you about something." He walked into the study and sat with her on the couch as Damon sat at her other side. "I want you to listen ok? This is your choice and no matter what you choose, I love you. That is never going to change." She takes a breath.

"What is it?"

"During your dad's coma before you went back to school I'm sure you noticed how Jenna and I had started arguing even if we tried to hide it from you and Elena." Jeremy nods his head. "The truth is, I filed for sole guardianship of you and then I started the process of adoption." Jeremy eyes go wide.

"You adopted me?"

"The papers came last week. I planned to get them corrected since Grayson woke up."

"No! I want to stay with you!"

"Jeremy, he's your dad. So I need you to think about this for a little while but if this is what you decide then next week is the hearing but regardless of what Gray said the other night you can stay here." He hugs her as he starts to cry.

"I already know what I want. I want to stay with you that's not changing, Mom. You're really gonna be my mom now." He smiles at her through the tears and she does the same.

"It'll be good to have you here kid." Damon moves over and musses his hair. "You'll make good practice for when the little rugrats finally get here." Damon smiles.

"I guess so." Jeremy laughs as he pushes Damon's hand away before he can mess with his hair anymore and Amelia starts fixing it as he leans into her.

* * *

**With Stefan After Leaving**

He didn't understand how things had changed so quickly. He always believed that Damon had loved Katherine just like he had once. Only now he knew he never did. He thought Elena was another chance with the woman Katherine should have been. The woman he thought he could spend the rest of his life with. Was he just fooling himself this whole time? Was Elena different from Katherine or was she the same? Did he really still believe in her when everything she said was proved to be lies? Yes, yes he did and he didn't know why. He didn't know why he still wanted to be around her despite knowing the truth now. It was like something was drawing him to her and he just couldn't help it. It was then that he really began thinking and coming to a conclusion he made his way to the Gilbert house.

"Stefan." Elena answers the door cheerfully pulling it closed behind her before leaning up to kiss him. Only she stumbles forward when he moves away. "Stefan?"

"You lied to me."

"What?"

"Amelia." Elena's eyes widen.

"Stefan, I don't know what she's been telling you but I didn't"

"And now you're still lying." Stefan turns away from her. "I decided before I came here that if you would at least tell me the truth when I confronted you, I could give it another chance."

"Another? Stefan what are you saying?"

"It's over Elena. I can't be with someone who lies to me about her own family. This." he points between them. "This was a mistake. I don't know who I thought your were but you're not her. You're not the person I want to build something with."

"Stefan, you can't just break up with me!" Elena says hysterically.

"Is everything alright out here?" Grayson steps outside and looks between them. "Elena?"

"It's over between us, Elena. I'm sorry." He moves to leave only for her to grab his arm.

"Stefan, don't do this. "

"I know Amelia, Elena. I have for years. She's marrying my brother for God's sake! I thought maybe there was another Amelia in Mystic Falls that you were talking about but imagine my surprise finding out that the girl who 'stole' your ex-boyfriend is actually his cousin that took him and his sister in after their mom left." Stefan shook his head.

"What is he talking about, Elena?"

"It's nothing, Daddy. Stefan, please can we just talk about this? We can go and grab a coffee."

"No you cannot young lady. You are grounded or did you suddenly forget that? Inside now."

"But Da-"

"Inside!" Elena looks at Stefan with tears in her eyes before doing as her father says. Grayson looks at the young man on his steps. "Now, did you just say my baby sister is getting married?"


	27. Chapter 27: Jury's Out Pt 1

**A/N: Disturbing little fact did you know that technically at the beginning of TVD Jeremy, according to the birthdate on the fandom site, was actually 14 up until the Halloween episode S1E6 ****_'Haunted' _****?**

* * *

**August 1, 2009**

**Somewhere Outside Nashville, Tennessee**

He waited as he rang the doorbell yet again. He could sense the life forces of the two within the rundown apartment that looked a lot like one of those filthy motels you would see in some shit movie. His nose twitched at the scent of weed, sex, and piss. Finally, the door swung open.

"I said I'd pay . . . who the fuck are you?" The man's scent was so pungent he had to stop himself from reacting. Clearly he had though he could intimidate whoever he had been expecting and hoped his steroid given body build would allow him to do the same with him. His lips twitched wanting to upturn into a smirk. Out of the two of them the man in front of him stood no chance whatsoever.

"Is there a Kelly Donovan on the premise?"

"What are you her husband?" The man's eyes narrowed and he gave a smirk.

"No." The man stood there attempting to stare him down until further explanation was given only for none to come.

"Fuck this, the bitch ain't worth it." He mumbled before calling for the woman he'd been sent to find. "Kelly! Get your ass out here woman, some suit is looking for ya!" It was only a minute or so later that the green eyed brunette appeared in the doorway clad in little more than a blue robe hastily thrown on and closed if her disheveled appearance was anything to go by. Breathing in through his nose he could smell that unlike her partner she was not yet under the influence of anything just yet though he could have done without the scent of arousal that hit him as she took in his appearance.

"Hello, there." She said batting her eyes at him despite her current sexual partner being right beside her.

"Tch, stupid ass bitch." The man said beneath his breath, too low for the woman next to him to hear. "I'm getting a pack a smokes, I'll be back in ten."

"Miss Kelly Donovan?" He asked moving aside to let the man pass by without touching him.

"Yea, that's me. Have we met before?"

"No ma'am. I'm Lorenzo St. John, a lawyer for the Maxwell family and you have been subpoenaed to appear in family court regarding your custody of one Matthew Gregory Donovan, age 16. Please hold still for a moment." Enzo compels her with a sharp toothy smile that unnerves her as he hands her the papers and takes a quick photo of her with the papers in hand.

"What?"

* * *

**September 21, 2009**

**Gilbert Clinic in Mystic Falls**

"Grayson." She narrows her eyes at him as he walks into the office and she stands up from where she had been sitting on the brown leather armchair.

"Jenna, I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"I didn't think you would."

"I've heard Amelia is getting married."

"She is."

"I didn't realize she was even in a relationship let alone one so serious." Jenna stares a moment with pursed lips.

"You would if you ever bothered to get your head out of your father's rotting ass."

"Jenna that isn't -"

"Fair?" She cuts him off with a glare. "What isn't fair is you treating that girl like she can do no wrong. That you could dare to imply no I'm sorry actually question if Amelia was safe to be around! You raised her Grayson! You know her, you know she would never hurt any of you or at least you should have, but clearly you spent so much time with your head between my sister's legs that the lack of oxygen must have caused brain damage."

"I'm warning you, Jenna!" He says and her eyes narrow.

"Warning me?" She scoffs. "Hey Gray, tell me. Did you know while living in New York Ames had entered into a relationship that went on for over 3 years? How about the fact they moved in together?" Grayson's mouth opens slightly but not a sound comes out. Sure it hadn't been Damon that she lived with but considering she didn't actually talk to anyone besides a select few here in Mystic Falls and Caroline was on board after being let in on the whole Damon is her past life's husband turned current life's mate on the condition she get to be a bridesmaid. "She loves Jeremy as if he were her own son and he calls her mom."

"Miranda-"

"Didn't give him the time of day and you know it. Ames and I already had this argument with you and I'm not rehashing it. I just came to give you this." She hands him the papers.

"What is this?" He asks as he stares at the large bold heading at the top.

"While you were in a coma Amelia started and completed the process of adopting Jeremy but with you having woken up custody has been split equally between you two. You've been served." She says with a little smile appearing. Feel like I'm on TV saying that! "Jeremy is old enough to choose who he wants to live with. You the man who can barely control his 17 year old adopted niece and wasn't around while he was growing up or his aunt who might be 21 but was the one who actually did most of the raising and is already managing her own successful business and creating prosthetics that work off electric sensor whatever, cause I really didn't understand it when she tried to explain but she's doing it!"

"Is he . . . " Grayson take a breath before meeting her eyes with a look of desperation. "Does he treat her well?"

"Like a queen." Jenna says seriously before walking to the door to leave only to pause. "You have to choose Grayson. You either believe what you've been told by people going off stories written over 100 years ago that were afraid of anything they couldn't understand or you believe what you know in your heart is true. Not your head Grayson, your heart. It's the Gilbert doctrine or it's your baby sister but one way or the other there's no going back." She pulls a small square paper out from her back pocket and goes to set it down on his desk. "She cried after she wrote it. Don't show if all you'll do is hurt her. Make your choice, Gray and stick with it. If you don't show we'll know what it is but if you do you better be in for the long haul and to do some serious ass-kissing, you dumbass." Jenna left him alone then.

Grayson looked at the textured tri-folded paper and opens it. He can't help the sob that escapes.

**Amelia Lucinda Maxwell-Gilbert and Damon Antonio Salvatore III **

**Request the Pleasure of Your Company at Their Wedding**

**Saturday the Twenty-forth of October Two Thousand Nine**

* * *

**October 9, 2009**

**The Circuit Court in Charlottesville, VA**

"Are you sure about this?" she asks as she straightened his tie once again from some imaginary crookedness she imagined. "You turn 18 in 15 months."

"I know, but I want this." Amelia turns to look at Vicki.

"You took us in when no one else did. Everyone else just ignored what was going on but you didn't. It doesn't matter what that bitch has to say or whatever excuse she comes up with or if the judge is stupid enough to believe her." Vicki says before Amelia can get a word out. "You are our mom."

"And mine too. You raised me and made sure I had everything I needed. You taught me how to ride a bike without training wheels, you cleaned up my scrapes when I fell and made sure I got back on." Jeremy said with an all too serious face for a 14 year old boy. She smiles at him before wiping his cheek.

"Damon got you Cheese Doodles didn't he?" Jeremy's cheeks go red realizing he has crumbs all over his face and he starts wiping at his cheeks with the back of his hand.

"Crap." They laugh.

"Maxwell vs Donovan."


	28. Chapter 28: Jury's Out Pt 2

**October 9, 2009**

**Earlier that morning in Charlottesville, VA**

She smoothed her skirt, looking at her appearance in the mirror yet again touching up her already perfectly done makeup. Her hair was curled and half up making her looking slightly older while her black skirt suit and baby blue button down were freshly pressed with not a wrinkle in sight. Damon walks in front of her, placing his hands to her cheeks and presses their foreheads together "You look beautiful, Snowflake. Stop worrying. No matter what I'm here right behind you."

"What if they take the kids away?" Teary grey-green eyes met ice blue.

"No one will take them from us. If they even try it I'll compel them." She smiles at him.

"Promise?"

"I'll die before I let anyone break our family again." He presses his lips against hers. "No one will take this chance from us, even if it means I have to burn the whole world down around us."

* * *

**The Circuit Court in Charlottesville, VA**

"Judge Lowman presiding." Everyone stands before she begins.

"It looks as though we are missing a major piece of the reason we're all here today. Where is Kelly Donovan?"

"It seems she is running late your honor but I am sure she will be here." Kelly's court appointed lawyer says. Amelia leans toward her own lawyer, whispering.

"If it would please the court, my client is willing to give Ms. Donovan the chance to appear before continuing the proceedings."

"Doubt she'll show either way." Vicki's voice was kept low but easily heard in the quiet courtroom.

"And who would you be young lady?" Judge Lowman asks having heard her due to the curved ceiling creating an echo. Vicki gulps hoping she didn't ruin anything.

"Vicki- I mean Victoria Donovan, your honor." She says nervously.

"A relative of Kelly Donovan and Matthew Donovan?"

"She carried me for nine months and he's my baby brother."

"You mean she's your mother." The judge glances at the papers before coming to a request of adoption and a name change at the back which would have been approved as she was of legal age.

"In the loosest possible sense of the word."

"And do you feel the same way Matthew?" Matt looks a bit nervous but calms down after looking at Vicki and Amelia.

"Yes I do. For as long as I can remember the only ones who have been around were Vicki and Amy. If things go the way we want today then we'll be able to call the woman who actually took care of us and made sure we had everything we needed our mom." Judge Lowman's brows raise at that.

"Matthew, please do remember you are in the court of law and lying will find you in contempt."

"Then it's a good thing I'm not." Matt doesn't even bother to look at the man instead keeping eye contact with Judge Lowman, though Vicki has no problems glaring at him.

"How has Ms. Maxwell ensured you were provided for?"

"How hasn't she? Before we moved into the house we were going to lose the apartment we were living in because mom didn't pay the rent before running off with her latest boyfriend. Vicki was going to drop out just so we could make rent and have something to eat." Amelia's eyes tear up remembering how she had called them from her apartment in New York and Vicki had broken down on the phone not knowing what else she could do.

"I'm sure that isn't the-"

"I'm sorry, were you there?" Vicki cuts Kelly's lawyer off before looking at the judge. "Kelly ditched us the moment I was old enough to get a job. Neither of us have seen her since September 2007. I remember because she left the week before rent was due but school had already started and our deadbeat dad showed up for about a month so he could trying to sue and fail to steal Amy's inheritance." Amelia breathes in as a tear falls, her hands clasped in front of her as a memory is brought forth of Vicki showing up at her door in the pouring rain looking so lost with a 14 year old Matt sobbing in her arms asking why his mom would leave them alone. She feels Damon's hand rest on her shoulder giving her comfort.

"Your father attempted to sue for Ms. Maxwell's inheritance?" Judge Lowman blinks.

"We're distantly related, though we call ourselves cousins to make it easier. Their father Peter Maxwell's grandfather and with him his children and so on were disinherited. He was not aware of the fact that the disinheritance was made to include the entire line, formally." Judge Lowman nods in acceptance.

"Do you have any financial statements or records proving your claims? While I do not doubt the sincerity shown I must ask." Amelia's lawyer moves forward then providing the judge the documents she provided when putting the case together.

"With this and Ms. Donovan's absence I see no reason as to why I sh-" The court room doors swing open and a woman with stringy dyed red hair, chucky jewelry, a too tight emerald green and black lace dress with a deep V showing far too much cleavage with a black cardigan. Her light green eyes were red rimmed and blown wide open. Matt looked at her and immediately turned away placing his head in his hands while Vicki just looked at her in disgust before scoffing. "What in the world?"

"Ms. Donovan!" Kelly's lawyer called in surprise not actually paying attention to her appearance aside from the fact she was present.

"This is Kelly Donovan?"

"Present!" Kelly's hand rises. "Oh Mattyboo, look how big you are now and so handsome! Vicki you're soo . . . tall. Did you do something with your hair?" Amelia sucks at her teeth as she stands, doing her best not to physically react to the woman's presence and ruin things as Kelly was doing well enough on her own.

"Kelly, I think you should sit down and stop talking now."

"Oh, it's you. It's always you, isn't it? Always in the damn way, if it wasn't for you we could have been a real family but no no no. Your mother just had to have you and take away what should have been Peter's." Kelly pokes her.

"Don't touch me Kelly." Amelia can feel Damon's eyes on her and knows he is moving to stand. "Damon, I've got this." She whispers under her breath.

"Or what?"

"Or nothing Kelly because you are doing just fabulous ruining your own case right now. Just sit down and sober up from whatever you've had."

"Ok, I'll do that." Kelly says to pleasantly and Amelia's eyes narrow. She turns to her lawyer only to turn back arm swinging. Amelia catches her fist and quickly twists her arm. The judge quickly calling for the bailiff.

"Mom!" the kids shout and Matt asks "Mom, are you ok?"

"Seriously, Kelly?" The woman squeaks in pain as .

"I'm fine Mattyboo."

"Whatever, no one was talking to you." Vicki says and Kelly realizes that she's right when the bailiff turns her around and she see's Matt focused on Amelia.

"Take Ms. Donovan to the holding area." When things have calmed Judge Lowman sighs. "Before this interruption I wondered if it I was making the correct decision in awarding custody of Matthew Donovan to a woman only a few years older than him regardless of there being a distant familial relation but after what I have just witnessed I have no doubt that Kelly Donovan did in fact abandon her two minor children and as such her parental rights. As you have had a social worker come by to confirm the living arrangements I find no reason for the proceedings to go any further. By the state of Virginia I name you a family. Amelia Lucinda Maxwell may I introduce you to your children Victoria Prudence and Matthew Gregory Maxwell."

"Yes!/Finally!" Matt and Vicki jump up and move to pull their mom into a hug. Amelia's arms wrap around them and her eyes meet Damon's. He smiles at her softly watching their new family fall into place before looking at Jeremy sitting next to him.

"Your turn next." Jeremy looks at him.

"Do you think Dad will really let me?"

"I don't know about letting you since I've never met the man and honestly what I do know of him I doubt I want to but no matter what you're coming home tonight kid and you're not going anywhere else unless you want to. I'll make sure of it." Jeremy smiles and hugs him, Damon tenses before relaxing and patting his back. "I've got you, kid." His eyes slide from the boy holding onto him like a lifeline to his Snowflake and seeing her eyes bright with joy. "We've got you. We're a family, all of us."

* * *

"Maxwell vs Gilbert" They hear just a few hours later.

"Ready, Jere-bear?"

"We got this, Mom."

* * *

**Earlier that Day, Elsewhere**

He stared at the suit hanging on the hook in front of him. There was just a few hours now. Three hours before he was stood in front of a judge while his sister made a case to be a mother to his son. She had already been approved and the adoption partially reversed by his waking up from a coma. His mind just kept going back to the arguments held since he woke up.

Was he a good brother? He thought of how he raised Amelia, all the smiles and laughs. Suddenly it was cut off, replaced by the look of devastation and utter heartbreak when he'd told her to leave. He was a good brother once. The best big brother in the world if his coffee mug he'd brought with him was anything to go by. Could he get that title back?

Was he a good father? He thought of his own and compared only to find himself lacking. He'd tried but even he had to admit to himself that he never actually went above and beyond for his son. He'd done more, a hell of a lot more, for his niece then he ever had his son even risking his career when his late wife had pressed him to falsify her birth records. Having friends cover up her horrid behavior. But what about Jeremy? His sweet little boy always left to the side, getting the short end of it all from everyone but Ames. Jeremy who wanted to be an artist but had only one person rooting him on while Miranda said it wasn't a real career or Elena who told him to grow up but would turn right back around and say he was too little for something.

And him? Did he ever actually bother to look? He hadn't until Jeremy never came back home. He had found his sketchpad in his bedroom after Jenna had come to see him to deliver him custody papers and the wedding invitation. His heart broke all over again when he looked through the sketchpad. Black and white sketches of what was clearly him walking away with a little boy's hand reaching out for him, Jeremy's hand. Was that all he was? Just another back turned to him?

Looking further in he'd seen Jeremy's hopes and dreams and they were with Ames as his mother. Ames' sweet smile with her hand reaching for the little boy's. Silly faces and lively colors. A self portrait of him in a three way mirror one with him horrifically scarred with Elena and Miranda's faces in the background in one. The center mirror had him with a blank look in the middle of a road surrounded by dark clouds with only a small light shining through and a man's outline in the background. The last mirror however had him smiling as a little boy with a grown Ames behind him wrapping him in her arms as they read a book.

Moving into the back of the sketchpad had left him breathless at the realization. Purple eyes that seemed to reflect the galaxy and were so familiar, reminding him of the day of the crash as he was drowning. Ames looking so small in the middle of a hospital dripping wet and heartbroken. Ames with those bright purple eyes and massive wings spread out behind her, his breath catching in his throat at his beautiful little sister looking so much like an angel. Even if only subconsciously he was sure his son knew his aunt wasn't human but even with that he held no fear of her. Why would he when she had a gentle soul? Tears dripped looking at the sketchpad once more.

How had he let things go so wrong? More importantly how could he fix it and get his family back?


	29. Chapter 29: Surprise Wedding Guests

**October 24, 2009**

"Are you ready for this, Mom?" Vicki smiles. "I can't believe I'm calling you Mom cause you're my mom! Agh! It's like I don't get tired of saying it."

"I'll tell you a secret. I don't get tired of hearing it." I pull her into my arms for a brief hug before letting go. "Mind checking up on the boys for me?"

"You meet get them in gear?" Vicki smirks at me. "No probs. Oh, hi."

"Hello gorgeous." Says a familiar voice and I turn to find him.

"Enzo, I didn't think you'd make it." I rush to hug him from where he stands at the doorway. "You better be staying or I'll kick your ass."

"And I'll help her."

"Now now no need for that, love. I've already spoken with Damon and I'll be stay at the Boarding House for the foreseeable future, once I'm invited in anyways."

"Damon knew you were coming and didn't tell me?" I ask. "Huh, well I know whose ass I'm kicking."

"Can I watch?" Enzo asks excitedly as his hands come up and rub together. Vicki rolls her eyes before grabbing him by the arm.

"Let's go handsome. I have to make sure the boys have their shit together and you are supposed to be the best man which mean if you're not ready, _I'm_ kicking _your_ ass. See ya Mom."

"Have fun! But not too much!"

"Yeah, yeah." She says waving her hand in the air as she drags Enzo along.

"Does that mean no trips to a closet?"

"Shut up, Enzo!" Vicki says with red cheeks as she pulls him out of the room and down the hall.

* * *

I let out a breath as I took in the reflection in the vanity mirror. Her hair was done in loose ringlets that fell down past her breasts, only needing to have the top half pulled back. Picking up my dark red lipstick and painting my lips before stepping in front of the full length trifold mirror across the room. The wedding dress had a sweetheart neckline with an empire waist covered in a beaded sheer lace and cap sleeves. The back was a low V with numerous buttons and loose chiffon identical to the lower half of her dress which pooled at the floor due to its brush train. The swell of her abdomen from reaching the 14th week of her pregnancy wasn't visible beneath the loose chiffon. Though she was definitely going to have to go shopping soon as her dresses, leggings, and skirts were quickly becoming too tight for her and the weather was growing cold.

"Knock, Knock!" Her voice was sweet and melodic as she opened the door with a bright smile. She tucked . "You know I was expecting to be a bridesmaid but I guess I understand considering I 'know' the groom."

"Lexi, shut the hell up."

"Oh come on, you know you love me."

"Ehh, Kind of questioning that now." I tease.

"Ok, now you need to shut up." They laugh.

"Did Lee come with you too?"

"Oh yeah. Thanks for making the ink for us."

"I can't exactly have one of my best friends going poof. So what did you guys decide on?"

"Well, I kind of took your advice and decided you were right about how if he was serious enough for forever then there really wasn't any reason to hold off. Besides tattoos aren't really permanent." At my look she just shrugs. "What? Cut off some skin, drink a little red juice, and all better!"

"Ok." I say rolling my eyes. "So?" She raises her left hand. "Holy shit! Is that what I think it is?"

"If you mean a wedding band tattoo then yes? And by the way this hurt. A lot!"

"It would! That ink had Vervain in it, Lexi."

"Why the hell did you give it to me then?" She asked annoyed.

"For protection!"

"I only needed one kind of protection."

"Not if you ever came here! The city council hunts vamps here and they know about Vervain. Besides, you're both immune to it now so that a good thing." I tell her and she just stares at me.

"Immune? How?"

"The tattoo might be small but well with the V mixed into the ink well it basically also burns it in so that it stays in your system permanently. Originals can't compel you?"

"I both love and hate you right now." She says looking away from me and her lips pursing.

"I'm ok with that." I shrug.

"Of course you are. You look beautiful by the way."

"Thanks. How long are you and Lee staying and where is Lee anyways?"

"He's with Stefan. Don't make that face or I'll leave a week early and won't be here when you get back from your honeymoon."


End file.
